Farmersville catcher Carlo Vanegas throws to first base to complete a strikeout during the Farmers’ 3-2 win over Sunnyvale on Tuesday, April 15. Photo by Victor Tapia / C&S Media
By David Wolman
After starting District 13-4A play with a 1-5 record, Farmersville head baseball coach Jon Nordin was curious to see if his team could turn its season around.
With only three returners with previous varsity experience, experience wasn’t on the side of the Farmers, who haven’t missed the playoffs since 2013.
In danger of missing the postseason for the first time in more than a decade, Farmersville caught fire this month and is now bound for the playoffs for the 11th consecutive season – excluding the 2020 season, which was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The clincher was a 3-2 come-from-behind home victory over Sunnyvale in 10 innings Tuesday, April 15.
“We’ve grown for sure,” Nordin said. “We have so many guys who haven’t done this before, so the hope was that we’d get better as we go, and we have. We’re certainly not a finished product, but we’re playing better than we were six weeks ago, and we’re proud of that.”
Farmersville appeared to be down for the count, but the senior class ensured that the team’s recent success on the field continued.
The Farmers trailed 2-0 coming into the bottom of the seventh inning and were then down to their final out after hitting into consecutive ground-ball outs.
Senior Mason Erwin initiated the comeback with a single and advanced to second base after fellow senior Jayce Fagan was hit by a pitch.
That set the stage for another senior, Paxon Graves.
Graves skied a two-run double into left field to tie the score at 2-2.
The game remained tied until the bottom of the 10th inning, when senior Garrett McNeese hit a walk-off RBI single into left field.
“Garrett is always aggressive,” Nordin said. “He’s going to get his best swing off every at bat. He’s had to wait his turn and deal with some struggles on the way to being a regular guy for us, so he was super deserving of that moment, and everybody was really proud for him.”
A big reason why Farmersville was able to mount a comeback was because of its pitching staff.
Sunnyvale led 2-0 in the top of the second inning following a two-run single by freshman Riley Harris, but that’s all the damage that was allowed by Graves, who stuck out eight Raiders over five innings.
Junior Mason Day came in relief of Graves in the ninth and proceeded to work around a couple jams, allowing just one hit and zero runs over two innings.
“Mason Day was very good in a tough spot,” Nordin said. “There was no room for error. That was really the first time he’s been in such a high leverage situation, and he handled it great. He’ll continue to be in those kinds of spots both this year and next, so it was great to see him handle it like he did.”
McNeese hit a walk-off single just one inning later.
“That game could have gotten away from us early,” Nordin said. “We call it a ‘hang in’ game. Just got to stay the course and play well enough to stay connected in order to give ourselves a chance late. The guys did a great job of keeping us in it and we were fortunate that things went our way at the end.”
Sunnyvale defeated Farmersville 4-0 in the rubber match of the two-game series last Friday in Sunnyvale.
The Farmers were outhit seven to five and committed four errors.
Farmersville (15-13 overall, 5-7 district) is scheduled to conclude the regular season Friday at home against Quinlan Ford before taking on Pittsburg in the bi-district round of the Class 4A Division II playoffs next week.
Details of the playoff series between Farmersville and Pittsburg are expected to be finalized by the end of this week.
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