Catholic baseball didn't need to celebrate its state semifinal dominance. It only 'did its thing.'

OZARK — Quiet and humble, Springfield Catholic star pitcher Ben Smith led a silent Fightin' Irish squad to the bus after their state semifinal game.

Everyone around him walked so quietly to the point where you would have questioned if it was the team that won 11-0 in a run-rule five-inning outing. But it was, in fact, the Fightin' Irish who dominated and will play for a state championship on Thursday.

"It was a little anti-climatic," Smith said. "We just went out there and we did our thing. I thought we kind of expected this out of us today."

Catholic is in the state championship for the first time since winning it all in 2014 after defeating Valley Park on Wednesday at US Baseball Park in Ozark. The Irish will play the winner of Wednesday night's game between Father Tolton and Lawson at 7 p.m.

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The Fightin' Irish, as they have been all season, were led by Smith who turned in another top-tier performance that showed why he's the high-level prospect he is. Smith threw a complete game with five innings, two hits allowed and he struck out 11 of the 17 batters he faced.

It was the last time Smith will throw this season when he entered the game with a 1.43 ERA and 76 strikeouts in his 49 innings of work. Smith will receive All-State recognition and could very well be named the Class 3 player of the year.

"He's just a workhorse," Catholic head coach Courtney Spitz said. "Every time he goes out there, he fills up the zone with three pitches and that's why we threw him because we knew Valley Park was a good hitting team and they've got several guys hitting over .400 and some sitting around .500. For us, it was about going out there and putting our best foot forward and that was what it was all about."

Catholic had a 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth but came out with eight runs thanks to clutch hitting and taking advantage of Valley Park's mistakes.

Smith, a Mizzou pitching commit, got the game started with a triple before he was brought home on a sac-fly by fellow Mizzou commit Coleman Morrison. Two more runs were brought home in the first thanks to a pair of infield errors.

Colton Galligos drove in a run to start the fourth. It was followed by a run scored on a bloop single that also had a throwing error have the ball go out of play. Mason DelRio then hit a two-run triple to make it 7-0. A later balk brought home a run and another bloop single from Benjamin Ruter scored one run until the ball got thrown out of play again to bring home another two. Valley Park finished the game with five errors.

Catholic didn't beat itself as it finished the game unblemished in the field.

"I think it goes back to our starting pitching and when our two dogs are on the mound, we feel very confident behind them," Spitz said. "We've been in these moments. We've been in these pressure games for the last two or three years now. I think our kids are comfortable in these moments and this is something we practice every day."

With the opportunity to run-rule his opponent in the fifth, Smith went away from his soft-spoken demeanor and brought out his killer mentality. He struck out the three batters he faced and the Irish were on to the championship.

"I saw their whole body language change," Smith said. "I saw that it was like they didn't want to be there, so to speak. So I capitalized on that and went out there and did my thing."

Whoever the Irish play on Thursday will be thankful that Smith isn't on the mound but Morrison, who will get the start, won't be a slouch either.

A long wait until the 7 p.m. first pitch awaits the Irish. While they took care of business in the semifinals, no extra motivation will be needed with a championship on the line.

"That's everything you dream of as a kid, right?" Spitz said. "I dreamed of it as a kid. When I was playing high school baseball, I wanted to go out and play in the Final Four for a state championship. I promise you, these kids won't be able to get any sleep tonight, but they'll be ready to play tomorrow."

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: High school baseball: Catholic dominates Valley Park in semifinals