No team wants to be on the wrong end of a no-hitter, and senior Devin Lauts made sure that didn’t happen to Lawrence High in the day’s final River City Baseball Festival game Thursday night at Hoglund Ballpark.

Lauts led off bottom of the seventh with a ground single that darted past the shortstop diving toward third to break up Blue Springs High right-hander Peyton Smith’s no-hitter.

Austin Quick followed with a line single to left and Garrett Romero reached on a beauty of a bunt down the third-base line to load the bases with nobody out and the tying run standing on second base.

Just as quickly as his gem began to unravel, Smith put it back together by striking out the bottom of the LHS lineup in order with 85 mph fastballs to lock down a 2-0 victory in an extremely well played high school baseball game.

Backed by strong defense in the infield and outfield, Ethan Taylor was on the opposite side of Smith in a terrific pitching duel. Smith pitched a three-hit shutout, allowed two hits and struck out 11. In six innings and one batter of the seventh, Taylor allowed two hits and two runs, both scoring on Jake Lufft’s bases-loaded single in the third inning.

Freshman third baseman Carlos Vasquez, blessed with an arm that belies his birth certificate and nice speed on the bases, made sure to leave Lufft stranded with a terrific play for the final out of the third. Vasquez snagged a hard hopper and from the chalk line behind third base hung a clothesline across the infield to retire the runner, one of his two flashy plays.

Taylor was quick to praise the Lions’ air-tight defense, his attitude just one of the qualities that pleased his coach.

“I’m so proud of Ethan Taylor,” Lawrence High coach Brad Stoll said. “He’s about a year off (elbow) surgery and every report we had was that Blue Springs can flat rake, and he held them to two hits.”

Taylor’s final three outs sent center fielder Reese Carmona racing toward the wall. Carmona caught the first two on the warning track and the final one a few steps in front of it. The Craig Biggio of the Sunflower League, Carmona catches when Quick pitches and plays center in all other games.

Carmona has spent most of his baseball career behind the dish, learning the nuances of catching from his father, a former softball coach at Baker University.

“I used to say that I liked catching better, but now that I understand playing the outfield more, I think I like center field better,” Carmona said.

Taylor liked having him there and the rest of his teammates fielding their position. The Lions didn’t lose the game as much as they ran into a pitcher who won it.

Blue Springs 002 000 0 — 2 2 0

Lawrence 000 000 0 — 0 3 0

W — Peyton Smith. L — Ethan Taylor.

LHS highlights — Ethan Taylor 6 IP, 2H, 2R, 4W, 2K; Garrett Romero 1 for 2, walk, stolen base; Devin Lauts 1 for 2, walk, 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.

Blue Springs highlights — Peyton Smith 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 W, 11 K; Jake Luft 1 for 2, 2 RBI, 1 walk, 2 SB.