Fayetteville Sweeps RTC for Regional Crown
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The members of the Fayetteville Lions pose after sweeping Round Top-Carmine in their regional final series Thursday in Brenham. Photos by Jeff Wick -
RTC’s Carter Marburger pitching. -
Fayetteville’s Chance Konvicka pitching. -
Fayetteville’s Easton Jaeger rounds third, heads for home. -
Fayetteville’s Jack Schley was safe as he won this footrace with RTC’s William Neese to third base during Game 2 of Thursday’s regional final.
The Fayetteville baseball team proved again they are the kings of Region IV-1A baseball.
The Lions (16-3) won the regional crown in dominating fashion Thursday in Brenham, sweeping past Round Top-Carmine 15-1 and 20-0.
With a huge crowd watching this all-Fayette County battle, Fayetteville won its third straight regional baseball title.
“All the hard work is paying off and we’re going to state for the third time in a row,” said Fayetteville senior Chance Konvicka, who in Game 2, pitched a complete game one-hitter with nine strikeouts.
Thursday’s victories now vault the Lions into the state semifinals where they will face Brookeland in a best-ofthree series at Huntsville High School Wednesday, Thursday, and, if necessary, Friday. All games are at 7 p.m.
The winner of that series advances to the state title game Saturday June 7 at Dell Diamond.
“Hopefully we can just keep it going,” Fayetteville head coach Clint Jaeger said. “This is four of the past five years (as regional champs) and 11 overall, but we’ve got to go finish it now.”
Each of the last two seasons, Fayetteville has lost in the state title game by one run.
But after the way the Lions handled business against the Cubs, Fayetteville looks like a team on a mission this season.
“We’ve worked hard for this. It’s a great feeling” said Fayetteville junior Jack Schley, who was a hero of Game 1 Thursday.
Schley pitched a complete game four-hitter with 10 strikeouts to lead the Lions to that Game 1 victory. Schley also hit a homer in that game.
“That home run felt good,” Schley said. “It’s been a minute since I pieced up a ball like that.”
Easton Jaeger had two hits, including a double and drove in four runs in the opener.
Kandon Kaspar had four hits in Game 2 Thursday, including two doubles and a triple and four RBIs.
There were a lot of other offensive heroes in Game 2 for the Lions. Lawson Fritsch had three hits, including two doubles. Dylan Henneke and Jaeger each drove in three. Schley scored four runs. Konvicka was intentionally walked five times.
Carter Marburger had the Cubs’ only hit in Game 2. The pitching of RTC’s William Neese kept the Cubs close in Game 1, before the Lions broke the game open with a 10-run fifth inning. Cash Robertson scored the Cubs’only run.
Despite the loss, it was a stellar season for RTC, which started the season 3-10, but got hot in the playoffs, and won series against Hull-Daisetta, Medina and Spurger to march to the regional finals and finish the year with a 1314 record.
And they only have two seniors.
“We were getting our faces kicked in early on. The guys put their heads down and went to work and learned this can be pretty fun when you work hard and play for each other,” said first-year RTC coach Ben Ahrens. “I couldn’t be more proud. This is a bitter taste, but this is great motivation to use in the offseason. Kudos to Fayetteville. They have a great ballclub. We wish them nothing but the best, but we will use this as motivation and drive for the future.”