Farmersville’s Mason Day struck out seven over seven innings in a 10-4 win over Quinlan Ford on Monday. Photo by Victor Tapia / C&S Media
By David Wolman
Two weeks ago, the Farmersville baseball team was 4-7 in District 13-4A play and the outside of the playoff picture.
However, the Farmers refused to give up on their playoff aspirations.
Because of that no-quit mentality, Farmersville is headed back to the postseason.
The clincher was a 10-4 home win over Quinlan Ford on Monday. The Farmers and Panthers came into the game tied for fourth place with identical 5-8 records. But Monday’s win gave Farmersville the head-to-head season win. Even if Quinlan Ford were to defeat Farmersville later this week, the Farmers would have already won two of the three games. Farmersville won the first two games against Quinlan Ford.
Playoff information will be released this weekend.
“Our guys expect to be good and be in the playoffs,” head coach Jon Nordin said. “It’s been a challenging year, but we’ve grown along the way and seem to be playing our best baseball the last 10 days. They knew we had to sprint at the end to get there and they’ve done it, so Im proud for them. We’ll stay at it and hope to be at our best next weekend.”
The top three batters in Farmersville’s lineup — Will Shirley, Sebastian Redwine and Carlo Vanegas — combined for eight of Farmersville’s 10 hits to accompany five RBIs.
Their bats delivered during a key juncture of the game.
Trailing 2-0 heading into the bottom of the third, Farmersville got on the board with a Will Shirley RBI double, Redwine followed with an RBI single to tie the score at 2-2 and Vanegas put Farmersville ahead for good with an RBI double.
“Those guys are some of our best players and if we’re going to be good and win big games, those guys have to be good,” Nordin said. “They all had great nights at the plate and carried us.”
The Farmers also got a great game from left-handed pitcher Mason Day. Day worked around seven hits and four runs and struck out seven over seven solid innings.
Day also got crucial plays from the Farmersville’s defense. Quinlan Ford got to within 5-3 after an RBI double in the top of the fifth and then had runners at first and third bases with one out, but a double play ended the inning. Center fielder Reece Tuck caught a fly ball for out No. 2 and then threw a strike to catcher Vanegas, who applied the tag on a Panthers runner attempting to sore to complete an inning-ending double play.
Farmersville scored two more runs in the fourth, a single tally in the fifth before exploding for five runs in the sixth to assume control. Redwine and Brandt Martinez each had run-scoring singles in the sixth inning and Seth Brooks made it 10-3 Farmersville after he drew a bases-loaded walk.
“Quinlan Ford has some good wins and that was a must-win game for them, so we expected them to play well and for it to be hard,” Nordin said. “It was important for us to answer those two runs quickly, and I’m proud we did.”
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