Sometimes all you can do is resort to an old baseball cliché.

“Talk about a game of inches,” Free State High coach Mike Hill said. “We’re out at home, and they’re safe at first.”

Hill was referring to the two crucial plays in Lawrence High’s 2-1 victory over the Firebirds in Wednesday night’s Class 6A state qualifier at the FSHS diamond.

In the third inning with one out and the score deadlocked at 1, Free State’s Connor Stremel hit a booming triple into the right-center-field gap.

Moments later, Hill flashed the suicide squeeze sign with Tyler Hatesohl at the plate. Hatesohl appeared to execute perfectly, deadening the ball far enough in front of LHS pitcher Albert Minnis to allow Stremel to score.

But Minnis flipped to catcher Jake Green, who applied the tag, and Stremel was called out.

“It was really, really close,” Stremel said, “but the ump made the call he thought was right.”

In retrospect, Stremel probably would have been safe if he had left when the ball was bunted, but he didn’t.

“I was a little bit tentative,” said Stremel, a junior outfielder. “I was a little shaky-legged for some reason.”

Added Hill: “If we break on time, we’re safe, but don’t throw (Stremel) under the bus. We had other opportunities.”

Not many, though. The Firebirds managed only three base-runners the rest of the way, and only one of them — Stremel’s sixth-inning single — was a hit.

Meanwhile, the Lions plated what proved to be the winning run in the sixth.

Aaron Rea was on second base after singling and moving up on a sacrifice when Clint Pinnick stroked a grounder up the middle that struck Free State pitcher Ryan Scott on his right follow-through leg and caromed toward the third-base line.

Scott rushed over, picked the ball up and fired a throw that pulled first baseman Cody Kukuk off the bag.

“I threw off my back foot, and it was high,” Scott said, “but I thought Cody got back to the bag before Clint.”

Not according to the umpire, and Rea raced all the way around third to score what proved to be the decisive run.

With a roster containing just one senior, the Firebirds finished with a 17-5 record.

“To be candid,” Hill said, “behind closed doors before the season we wondered if we would even get to .500. But the kids believed in themselves, and lived up to the expectations of the program.”

And they came within one game of reaching the 6A state tournament.

“They’re certainly disappointed,” Hill said, “but here’s the thing … they played as well as they can play.”