SAN MARCOS — The Fayetteville High School baseball team defeated D’Hanis High School June 1 at Bobcat Ballpark in the second game of a threegame series to head to their second state tournament in the last three years. It was evenly matched to start the event before Fayetteville unloaded their offense in the later part of the contest for a final score of 12-4.
“The guys just work really hard and they really want it,” said Fayetteville head baseball coach Clint Jaeger.
“These two games, they were focused. There was nothing that was gonna stop them. I mean, D’Hanis was gonna have to play outstanding games to beat us because they were driven this year. They wanted to get back there, so kudos to them.”
Fayetteville freshman Jack Schley pitched a solid game and also delivered some big hits down the stretch. “We came out, we were hot,” Schley said. “We knew they would be playing with intensity.
They had their ace on the mound and they just came from a loss, so we knew we were gonna have to play our best to win and we did it. We played the best we could and I think this is great baseball.”
The Lions loaded the bases in the top of the second inning as Schley knocked in the first run of the game on a single to left. Two walks and a sacrifice bunt then tallied three more runs for Fayetteville and a 4-0 lead.
D’Hanis came up with two runs in their next at bat on two base hits and a walk to make it 4-2. After D’Hanis hit a triple in the bottom of the fourth inning to eventually score a run, the Lions counteracted with two walks and a base hit from sophomore Easton Jaeger, son of head coach Clint Jaeger, to make it 7-3 in the top of the fifth inning.
The Cowboys earned a run back in the following inning on a ground out to the pitcher after a base hit, bunt for a base hit, and a wild throw.
The floodgates opened for Fayetteville in the top of the sixth inning when Schley hit a bomb to center field, scoring three runs that reached on a walk, wild pitch, and another single.
A base hit from Jaeger made it 12-4 after junior Keagan Supak also reached on a base hit. Lions senior Travis Gully then came in to close out the game on the mound in the final two innings for a 12-4 win and access to the state tournament. Fayetteville played Nazareth High School June 7 at Dell Diamond with a game time of noon.
The Class 1A state championship game will be played today (Thursday, June 8) at 9 a.m. if necessary.
