KENEDY — Fayetteville baseball is heading to the 2024 UIL state tournament for Class 1A again after a barnburner with D’Hanis High School May 29 at Joe Gulley Park in Kenedy by a final score of 9-8. Both teams battled it out until the very end and it was Fayetteville’s big bats, along with lights out pitching in the last inning to seal the win.
“A classic Fayetteville-D’Hanis game,” said Fayetteville head baseball coach Clint Jaeger.
“This one was not as pretty as last night’s by any means. By both teams. Very roughly played, but it’s just who was gonna stay with it the longest and I’m so proud of these guys. This moment right here is probably one of the proudest moments of my whole career. Right now. Those guys fought through it. They could’ve easily given up whenever we got down and they had their big innings. We could’ve given up the whole year and they didn’t. They just fought through it.”
Fayetteville senior Keagan Supak delivered huge outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to put the winning touches on what turned out to be a nail biter.
“This season’s been rough,” Supak said. “A lot of people doubted us. We came here, we knew what we could do, we proved everybody wrong. It’s an awesome job from everybody. When I came into pitch, I just knew the seven guys behind me were gonna do it and get it finished."
After a single to center from Fayetteville junior Lawson Fritsch, senior Jake Kubala added a dou- ble down the left field line to score Fritsch and surge ahead 1-0 in the top of the second inning. Sophomore Kole Schmitt drew a walk in the same inning, then sophomore Ma- son Fenhaus laid down a sacrifice bunt that forced a wild throw, which scored two more runs. Senior Keagan Supak followed it with a grounder to the shortstop that was botched and resulted it another run scored, making it 4-0.
The big inning continued as sophomore Jack Schley connected on a base hit to right-centerfield to score a run and put it at 5-0. D’Hanis responded with a few base hits in their next at bat and sent in two runs on a wild double play throw from Fayetteville, which made the scoreboard read 5-2. The Cowboys went on to tie the game in the same inning with a botched grounder, hit by pitch, and a base hit to left field that scored three runs. D’Hanis would take the lead on a suicide squeeze attempt after a catcher interference call to put the game at 6-5, then scored one more run in the bottom of the third after a wild throw on a grounder.
Fayetteville answered with a walk from sophomore Mason Fenhaus, a single to right from Supak, and a sacrifice fly from junior Easton Jaeger to make it 7-6 in the top of the fourth inning. After a single to center from sophomore Jack Schley, Supak scored on a wild pick off throw to first, which tied the game at seven. The Lions scored again on a base hit to center from Jaeger and one to left from Supak in the top of the sixth inning, then D’Hanis put things even once again on a walk, balk, intentional walk, and a stolen base at home to tie it at eight.
The Lions kept their rhythm in the top of the seventh inning with two walks, an infield hit from ju nior Brody Dooley, and a grounder to third from Schmitt on a fielder's choice that drove in a run and put Fayetteville ahead 9-8. D’Hanis threatened to put more runs on the board in their final at bat with a walk and a stolen base, but Supak shut it down for the Lions by forcing a strike out, fly out, and ground out to capture a 9-8 win and a trip to the UIL State Tournament. Fayetteville played Abbott High School on June 5 at Dell Diamond in Round Rock. The winner will play today (Thursday, June 6) at 9 a.m. at the same location.
