Fayetteville Defeats Kennard 6-4 To Win 1A State Baseball Title
The Fayetteville High School baseball team took on Kennard high school in the 1A state championship final Thursday morning and were victorious by a final score of 6-4, winning their first state championship title since 2012.
“To me, if you got good pitchers, keep the ball in play, and got guys that can field it, you can compete with anybody,” said Fayetteville head baseball coach Clint Jaeger, whose team had lost the state title game in 2017 and 2018. “We find ways to scratch out runs. Our guys did that today and came up with some key hits. It feels really good.”
Freshman Keagan Supak tossed six stellar innings before allowing a lead-off single in the seventh.
Sophomore Travis Gully came in to seal the deal.
Gully allowed a pair of hits as Kennard trimmed the Fayetteville lead to two runs and had the tying run at the plate with no outs.
But Gully got a sacrifice fly and then struck out the final two bats of the game.
“I was just trying to blow it by them with fastballs,” said Gully. He also reached base four times as a hitter. “I just came out here like any other game. Just trying my best to get on base and do what’s best for the team.”
Fayetteville (19-9) made noise quickly in the top of the first inning with a triple from sophomore catcher Logan Fritsch that drove in Gully and freshman Reid Gross who had both walked. Freshman Jake Kubala added another run in the same inning with a base knock RBI on a grounder in between the first and second basemen to score sophomore Karson Corn, who pinch ran for Fritsch.
Kennard responded in the bottom half of the inning scoring a run on two singles, one to centerfield and one to right field, along with a couple stolen bases. The Lions tacked on another run in the next inning when senior Landon Urban scored on a double steal. Urban had previously stole second base on a throw in the dirt after connecting on a hit toward second base. Urban then advanced to third on a groundout before striding home on the double steal attempt. A base hit from Gully to left field in the top of the fourth inning made it a 5-1 ball game and Kennard didn’t score their second run until the bottom of the sixth on a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded. A shot down the left field line followed by another base hit forced Jaeger to make a visit to the mound.
Supak was able to strikeout the last batter of the inning to keep a three run lead. Fayetteville added an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning when Kubala stole home on a wild pitch to the backstop. Kubala had reached on a walk and eventually made his way to third base thanks to an infield hit to the shortstop by Urban to load the bases.
Kennard didn’t throw in the towel as they tallied two more runs on a single, double, infield hit, and sacrifice fly, but it wasn’t enough as Travis Gully closed out the game for the Lions by striking out the last man up to complete the 6-4 victory, clinching the state championship.