Lemont’s Grady Garofalo has a lot of fun when he’s playing baseball.

That fact isn’t lost on coach Brian Storako and Garofalo’s teammates.

“He’s all smiles — we call him ‘smiles’ because he’s smiling all the time,” Storako said of his junior center fielder. “He’s a good kid to be around and he kind of lightens the mood a little bit.”

That fact also isn’t lost on Garofalo.

“My main goal is to just go out and have fun,” he said.

A lot of people rooting for host Lemont were smiling Thursday because of Garofalo, who singled home the first run in the second inning and made what turned out to be an important diving catch in a 4-2 victory over Richards in a South Suburban Conference crossover game.

Missouri-St. Louis recruit Shea Glotzbach, a senior right-hander, struck out nine and earned the pitching win for Lemont (5-2-1, 2-0 SSC Red). Brett Tucker also drove in a run.

Max Kawa and Baha Hammad each drove in runs for Richards (7-4, 2-1 SSC Blue).

The turning point came on defense, though. Lemont held a clear 4-0 lead with one out in the top of the sixth when Garofalo robbed the Bulldogs of an extra-base hit on a drive by Sean Cody.

On its own merits, it was a great play, but it became magnified as Richards staged a two-out rally, scoring twice and putting a runner at first before Garofalo made a routine catch to end the inning.

So, if Garofalo doesn’t dive for that catch, who knows what could have happened?

“That’s baseball, you know?” Storako said. “On a day when it’s 45 degrees and the wind is blowing, crazy things happen. Any play at any moment is big, especially a diving catch like that.”

Garofalo said he had only made one diving catch before, back when he was a freshman.

“I was just busting my butt to try to get to the ball,” Garofalo said of Thursday’s play. “I didn’t slow up and I ran as hard as I could, and I just laid out and caught it.

“That was pretty special.”

Glotzbach is happy to have Garofalo playing behind him.

“It’s awesome,” Glotzbach said. “He came up to varsity this year and is really stepping up and playing a big role for us. That fly ball he caught really saved us. It’s as good as it gets.”

Garofalo was batting second when Lemont made its spring trip to Florida, but Jacob Parr returned Thursday from an injury and took over that spot in the order and Garofalo batted ninth.

Garofalo said he didn’t mind the switch and Storako said it’s an important spot.

“Honestly, our nine hitter kind of gets us started to get to the top of our lineup,” Storako said. “Just because you are hitting No. 9 in our lineup doesn’t mean you aren’t a good hitter.

“He can be a two hitter or a nine hitter for us because he puts the ball in play.”

Garofalo is one of eight children in a family that includes six sisters. Two of his other seven siblings played sports. Madison played softball at Marist and Zach played baseball at Brother Rice.

Grady said Madison helped get him interested in baseball when he was 5. After her high school career at Marist, she stopped playing softball and is now a police officer in Atlanta.

One of his other sisters, Melanie, graduated from Lemont in 2024 and is now in the Marines.

While Grady says he wants to play baseball in college, he’s unsure about what comes after that.

“I don’t know, but after those two, I have big shoes to fill,” he said of his sisters.

Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.