Fayetteville’s Six Senior Baseball Players Hoping to Finish Strong

The Fayetteville baseball team has surged to the state semifinals led by one of their largest group of senior ballplayers ever. A whopping six Lion seniors (Easton Jaeger, Lawson Fritsch, Kellen Lopez, Chance Konvicka, Brody Dooley and Jack Winford) have all played key roles for Fayetteville as it has built a 16-3 overall record.

“Watching these guys grow up has been pretty special,” said Fayetteville head coach Clint Jaeger. “Having most of them for four years, and some of them longer than that – some in little league – It’s been quite a journey.”

The senior Clint Jaeger has known the longest is his son Easton, the team’s shortstop.

“It’s been very special to have him here with me to share that bond, as father and a son, and he’s just a special player, a coach on the field,” Clint Jaeger said. “Very knowledgeable.”

Easton isn’t just a heady player on the field. He was the valedictorian of Fayetteville’s graduating class.

“It’s a pretty big deal to me. My sister Brooklyn got it too,” said Easton, of being valedictorian. “I want to hold myself to a higher standard. Make sure to have good grades first and then be an athlete.”

But none of the Fayetteville seniors have had to worry about grades for a while.

Fayetteville was the first Fayette County school to hold graduation way back on May 9, so the Lions seniors have had some extra time to focus on baseball, and extra time to represent their school.

“We’ve been playing together since we were little, and we’re still playing together and still hanging out,” said Konvicka, who is one of the Lions’ top pitchers.

That pitching staff is a strength says Lopez, who as a catcher, handles that staff.

“Our pitching staff is amazing, especially for a 1A school,” Lopez said. “We have like seven or eight pitchers. If one guy’s down we have another that can step up.”

Lopez said he came to Fatetteville as a fifth grader the same year as Dooley, but both felt immediately embraced.

“They treated me like one of them. They have been like brothers to me, and we’ve been really close,” Dooley said. “I think us being so close helps us play well together.”

Outfielder Winford just enrolled at Fayetteville his senior year but also quickly became part of this group.

He and his family had been living in the Woodlands and he was homeschooled there, before moving here.

“Being a part of this team has done a lot for me,” Winford said. “I’ve loved baseball forever.”

For most of these seniors, the end of this baseball season, whenever it comes, will mark the end of their athletic careers.

But not Fritsch. In addition to being a star outfielder for the Lions, he’s a former state champion pole vaulter, who has signed a scholarship agreement to vault for Mc-Neese State in Louisiana.

“You have to have perseverance in pole vault,” Fritsch said. “Sometimes it’s rough. It’s not always going your way but you just have to keep going at it – same thing in baseball.”

While the Lions haven’t had many rough patches this season, these seniors know a lot about perseverance.

Each of the last two seasons they, and the rest of the Lions, finished as state runnerups – each time losing in the title game by just a single run.

“It always sucks getting second but somebody has to do it,’ Dooley said. “I think it can really help us this year, leaning into the experience we have. We’ve played in big games and won big games, and we’re using that.”

Easton Jaeger has mixed feelings about those two state runner-ups finishes.

“It bothers me now, getting second, but in the future I’ll look back at how hard we had to work and how difficult it is to get that far. It’s not something that comes easily. It is something to be proud of.”

But all six of these seniors really, really want to finish their Fayetteville careers with a state title.

The next challenge standing in their way is Brookeland (21-2), a team that beat them in the regional finals in basketball this season (the Lions beat Brookeland in the basketball regional finals the year before).

The Lions will face off against Brookeland in a best-of-three series at 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at Huntsville High School. If necessary they will play Game 3 at 7 p.m. Friday back in Huntsville.

The winner of that series advances to the 1A state title game at 9 a.m. June 7 at Dell Diamond in Round Rock.

“They’ve had that goal of a state title in their minds since they were little,” Clint Jaeger said. “But there’s no added pressure. It’s just a ballgame when it comes down to it. That’s the way they treat it. They have fun, play hard and see what happens.”