Lions Roar Back to Baseball State Semis for 8th Time in School History
The Fayetteville high school baseball team has earned a bid to Dell Diamond in Round Rock to compete in the 1A UIL state championship after beating D’Hanis high school Friday night in a best-of-three series.
This will be Fayetteville’s third state championship appearance in five years, making it to this platform eight times in school history with several current players’ family members being a part of those teams.
Sophomore catcher Logan Fritsch’s brother played on the 2017 and 2018 team while his uncle played on the 1997 team. Other current player’s family member appearances include Jake Kubala’s brother in 2017 and 2018, Keagan Supak’s dad in 1985, Travis Gully’s dad in 1985, and Parker Vitek’s dad in 1997 and 1999.
The Lions (17-9) play Nazreth (22-3) noon Wednesday in the state semis. The winner plays in the state championship game Thursday at 9 a.m.
The Lions took the first game on Thursday by winning 4-1 after a two-hour rain delay and finishing the contest around midnight.
“We’re kind of used to having delays and obstacles to have to deal with,” said Fayetteville head baseball coach Clint Jaeger. A couple weeks prior, the team was forced to postpone one of their playoff series due to a positive COVID case among the players. “If they’re not ready to handle adversity by now, I don’t know what’s going to get them ready for it. It wasn’t that big of a deal having to wait (out the weather). They were ready to play. We had some team bonding during the time off. We went to get a meal and sit down. We bonded and we were ready to play whenever the rain stopped.”
D’Hanis evened the series in the next game on Friday by mercy rule with a 12-2 win that was called in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Fayetteville then bounced back and defeated the Cowboys in game three with a final score of 7-6 that went eight total innings.
“They never say die,” Jaeger said. “As long as we got something left, we’re not dead. We talked about that before the last inning when we were down three. I said ‘Hey, nobody make the first out. Everybody get on base and we’re going to make some magic happen’.”
Freshman Keagan Supak has played just about every position for Fayetteville and has been a crucial part to the team’s success this year.
Supak hit a ball in the gap to shallow right field in the top of the eighth inning with runners on first and third and two outs to give the Lions a 7-6 lead that would eventually be the winning run.
“Our intensity level kept going up and up,” said Supak. “In the last inning with a runner on third, I had to get him in some how. The little blooper did the job.”
Fayetteville started the action in game three right away in the top of the first inning when Logan Fritsch drove in Supak from third base on a sacrifice fly to center field that gave the Lions a 1-0 lead.
Stellar pitching from sophomore Travis Gully also gave the team some nice breathing room in the first few innings. Senior Landon Urban knocked their second run bringing in sophomore Parker Vitek on a shot to left field in the top of the fourth inning. Supak kept the hitting party going with another liner to left field that sent home freshman Jake Kubala.
D’Hanis responded by loading the bases in the bottom of the fifth inning and hitting a shallow fly ball to right field that dropped and scored three runs to tie the game. The Cowboys started the bottom of the sixth inning with a lead off triple to the right-centerfield wall from sophomore infielder Eusebio Tapia and was followed with a double by freshman J.J. Garcia that also went to right-centerfield and scored Tapia.
With runners on first and third and one out, Cowboys’ junior Luke Langfeld made it a 5-3 game with a base hit to right field. The next run was walked in on a bases loaded jam for a 6-3 score.
Then Fayetteville’s Urban was able to leadoff the inning with a grounder that was botched by the shortstop and reached first base safely. Supak then striped a base hit between the shortstop and third baseman to put runners on first and second with no outs. Freshman Reid Gross came up to the plate and belted a triple down the right field line that put the contest at 6-5 with a runner on third. Fritsch then reached on a fielders choice as Gross trotted home and tied the game.
No runs were scored in the bottom of the seventh inning, so the grudge match went to extras.
Kubala walked to start the next inning before freshman Cooper Mau hit a grounder that advanced Kubala to second base on a fielder’s choice. Urban then hit a grounder to third and was originally called out to end the inning before Fayetteville decided to appeal the call.
The umpires talked it over and decided that Urban was safe as the first baseman pulled his foot off the bag while making the catch in order to keep the inning alive for the Lions with runners on first and third and two outs.
Supak then made it a 7-6 game with his hit to rightfield. In a last chance attempt for D’Hanis, Fritsch took the mound and forced a grounder to first base for the first out. The next batter launched a triple to centerfield to give the Cowboys some hope with a runner on third.
D’Hanis then hit another grounder to Vitek at first base who used his awareness and realized the runner on third was making his way towards home plate. Vitek threw home and Supak tagged the runner for the second out. The following batter was hit by a pitch to put runners on second and third. Fritsch struck out the final batter swinging to win the game and seal a trip to Dell Diamond for a shot at the state championship.