Fayetteville Beats RT-C in Regional Semifinal Baseball Thriller

Fittingly, this battle between in-county neighbors was really close.

In an edge-of-your-seat-all-night type of game, a huge crowd showed up Thursday to watch Fayetteville edge Round Top-Carmine 3-2 in a thrilling one-game regional semifinal at Mumford.

Twice in the regular season the Lions had lost to the Cubs, but this time Fayetteville prevailed and now as one of the last eight teams alive in Class 1A, advancing to the state quarterfinals/regional finals against D’Hanis.

“This feels amazing. We’ve been working hard all year for this,” said Lions catcher Logan Fritsch, who drove in all three of the Lions’ runs Thursday.

“I was lost for words after the game,” said Fayetteville head coach Clint Jaeger. “I told the guys I was proud of them and that we just beat a really, really good, experienced team.”

Fayetteville improves its record to 15-8.

“It’s a shame it ended like this,” said RT-C head coach Blake Goehring, whose senior-laden team finishes the season with a 15-5 record. “These guys have been together for a long time. We just didn’t get the big hit tonight. We just got beat. Fayetteville played a great game.”

The Lions earned that date with D’Hanis, a best-of-three series starting Thursday with Game 1 and continuing Saturday with Game 2, and if necessary Game 3. Place and time details had not been finalized at press time.

D’Hanis won the 2019 state title and knocked off RT-C that season in the regional finals on its way to that championship.

The Lions now carry the banner for Fayette County – and they have quite a history off success against D’Hanis in the postseason. Fayetteville beat D’Hanis in three-game regional final series in both the 2018 and 2017 seasons when the Lions were state runner-ups. They also beat D’Hanis in a one-gamer in 2012 the year the Lions went on to win the state title. But most of the current crop of Fayetteville players are too young to remember that.

These Lions are young. Seven of their starters are freshmen or sophomores.

Fayetteville freshman Keagan Supak pitched six innings Thursday before fellow freshman Reid Gross pitched a score less seventh. Supak allowed just six hits and two runs, striking out nine.

“They threw strikes, that’s all that matters,” Fritsch said. “Keagan’s curveball and slider were amazing, and then Reid came in a threw really well. They both did amazing.”

Continuing that youthful storyline, was the fact that all three runs Thursday were driven in by a sophomore, Fayetteville’s catcher Fritsch.

“On a humid night, catching all the innings, he was covered in sweat, and to do that and knock in all the runs – great job,” Jaeger said.

“Both times I was just looking for my pitch. I watched two strikes, got a full count and just drove it up the middle, didn’t try to do too much,” Fritsch said.

Fayetteville got two first inning runs, and never trailed, though RT-C was always threatening, and left eight runners on base.

Against Round Top-Carmine senior starting pitcher Ryker Goehring, the Lions first two batters of the game, Supak and Gross, both walked, advanced on a Travis Gully sacrifice fly and then scored on a Fritsch single.

“As a visitor you want to go up there and hang up a crooked number and make them play from behind. Mission accomplished on that,” Jaeger said.

In the bottom of the second, Round Top-Carmine’s Kannyn Goehring, while batting, suffered a knee-cap dislocation so serious that an ambulance had to be called. His knee cap was able to be moved back in place by the EMS crew on the way to the hospital, his dad confirmed after the game.

After that 30-minute medical delay, play resumed.

“It was hard to get focused after that,” Blake Goehring said.

The Cubs cut the lead to 2-1 in the fourth inning when Kevin Polasek doubled, was bunted to third by Holden Wagner and scored on a single by Alex Pieper.

Fayetteville regained a 3-1 lead in the fifth when Gully was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a single by Fritsch.

RT-C cut the lead to one run in the bottom of the sixth when Pieper doubled and scored on a single by Bryan Lunbeck.

Pieper, in relief of Goehring, pitched scoreless frames in the sixth and seventh, but the Cubs couldn’t complete the comeback.

Gross pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh. As the final out, a pop-up, fell into the glove of Parker Vitek as first, it touched off a celebration for the Lions and their fans.

RT-C meanwhile, saw five key seniors (Ryker Goehring, Pieper, Bryan Lunbeck, Kevin Polasek and Wagner) play their final high school game.

“What they did for our program, they put us back in the map,” Blake Goehring said. “(After the season was cancelled last year) this year we wanted to make up for that lost time, but it doesn’t always work out the way you want.”

Meanwhile, it’s the young Lions, who only have two seniors, that get to play on. They might not be a veteran team, but they are certainly playing like it.

“We’ve been playing ball together since we were eight years old,” Fritsch said. “We know how to work together.”

Now they are one of the last eight 1A teams standing in the state of Texas.