Lawrence High pitcher Alex Laughlin delivers a pitch to Rockhurst’s Mark Boushka during Lawrence High’s game against Rockhurst Saturday, April 30, 2011 at LHS. LHS won, 7-3.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Lawrence High pitcher Alex Laughlin had a chance to draw some attention to himself.

His pitching adversary, Rockhurst junior Henry Weiler, has already committed to the University of Oklahoma. The Sooners qualified for the College World Series last season.

On this day, Laughlin outpitched Weiler, helping his Lions secure a quality 7-3 victory against the Hawklets, one of the top teams in Missouri.

But Laughlin didn’t care about the duel much — he just wanted to beat a solid team like Rockhurst.

“They win a lot of big games, so we just wanted to go out there and prove that we could hang with the big dogs,” Laughlin said.

In his seven innings on the mound, Laughlin struck out eight batters and walked no one. The Hawklets picked up their first hit in the first inning, but didn’t get another one until the fifth.

Though Laughlin said he didn’t worry about the matchup, coach Brad Stoll said he thought Laughlin’s aggressive attitude on the mound was the difference.

Using a hard slider and sharp fastball, Laughlin attacked the Hawklets on the inner-half of the plate, forcing them to jump back several times.

Laughlin also focused on throwing strikes early in the count.

“He did what we expect him to do every time,” Stoll said.

The Lions (10-5) picked up a run in the first inning after Ross Johnson led off with a double. Johnson moved to third on an infield single by Troy Willoughby and scooted home on a wild pitch.

“That’s just what he does,” Stoll said. “I think that set the tone for our guys.”

The Lions and Hawklets traded zeros on the scoreboard for the next 21?2 innings, fulfilling the pregame expectation of a pitchers’ duel.

“At one point, I thought that game was going to last about 48 minutes,” Stoll said.

Things changed in the bottom of the fourth.

Corbin Francisco, Matt Sutliffe, Aaron Gile and Shane Willoughby all singled to open the inning and later scored.

Jake Vinoverski and CJ Roush also singled and scored on fielding errors by Rockhurst.

Weiler picked up two groundouts to escape the inning, but he didn’t come back to pitch in the fifth.

The six-run inning gave Laughlin all the breathing room he would need. The long inning forced him to sit on the bench for a long time, though, somewhat breaking his rhythm.

The Hawklets responded with two runs in the top of the fifth and scored one in the seventh, but the final result was never in doubt.

Stoll was proud of his team’s ability to respond to the challenge. He said he truly believes his team is one of the best in the state.

“Without a doubt,” Stoll said. “That’s what we tell them every day.”

Laughlin said the Lions are getting eager for the postseason, which starts in a little more than two weeks.

“We’re ready to get in there and prove we can win state this year,” Laughlin said.

The Lions play three games at LHS this week, two of them being true home games.

They play Olathe Northwest on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Lions play Shawnee Mission Northwest in a rescheduled non-league game. And on Thursday, Lawrence plays Leavenworth in an “away” game since the Pioneers’ field isn’t in game condition.