Farmersville senior Levi McAbee makes a diving catch during a recent home game against Community. Photo by Victor Tapia / C&S Media
By David Wolman
For the past five years, Farmersville senior Mason Day has been competing in robotics.
One of his biggest personal achievements to date came March 13-14 in Texarkana, where he, Gavin Dillon, Walker Liebert, Travis Lombard, Addison Adams and Liam McLaughlin — all students at Farmersville High School and members of VEX Robotics Team 87490Z, known as “Men in Purple” — qualified for the 2026 VEX Robotics World Championship.
However, in the days leading up to the VEX Robotics World Championship, Day faced an important decision: fly to St. Louis the day before the start of the competition or pitch in a game for the Farmersville baseball team that had significant playoff implications and then fly out the following morning.
Day decided to remain in Farmersville and play baseball. The senior left-hander was glad he stayed. He threw a complete game with seven strikeouts over seven innings as the Farmers defeated Quinlan Ford 10-4 on April 20 — a victory that clinched a 12th consecutive postseason appearance for the program.
The following morning, Day was on a plane to St. Louis.
“I have never been in that many places within 24 hours,” he said. “It’s very different. It was really big because I would have come back from our robotics competition and we would have been done for everything. It was still cool to be able to come back and play the last few games.”
The win was part of a strong finish to the regular season for the Farmers, who overcame a 4-7 start in District 13-4A play to qualify for the playoffs.
Senior first baseman Will Shirley said he and his teammates had a mutual understanding of how much more everything mattered toward the end of the season. Focus was the biggest thing that needed to change, he said, and a renewed approach helped turn the season around.
Sophomore pitcher/shortstop Sebastian Redwine said the buy-in came quickly.
“I don’t think we thought about the playoff streak that much,” he said. “It was more so, ‘We’re going to make the playoffs.’ No matter what, we’re going to go out and fight and do our best to make the playoffs.”
Leadership has been strong all season despite Farmersville losing three key seniors from last year’s team that reached the area round of the playoffs — Jahir Vanegas, Mason Erwin and Paxon Graves. Erwin and Graves also led the way on the mound, but Day, Redwine, Camden Anderson, Brady Aungst and Seth Brooks have filled those roles.
“We’ve never just drowned out a team with just hitting or pitching,” Day said. “It seems like if we can stay with a team long enough, that’s where we shine. Even going back to last year, we had three or four games that went to extra innings, and we won because they made one mistake and we won at the end.”
The defining moment of Farmersville’s second-half surge was a 5-3 win over Sunnyvale on April 14.
Farmersville overcame deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to win. The Farmers were down to their final out in the top of the seventh, but Anderson battled back from an 0-2 count with two outs and drew a walk. An error on the ensuing play drove in the tying run.
Farmersville capitalized on two errors in the eighth inning, with a fielder’s choice by sophomore Brandt Martinez giving the Farmers a 5-3 lead.
Sunnyvale put the tying run on base in the bottom of the eighth with one out, but a pickoff of a runner at first base by Redwine ended the game.
“It was pretty nerve-racking,” he said. “It was an inside pickoff move. The guy on first base just didn’t recognize it and got picked off.”
The win energized the Farmers, who won three of their last four games to secure a playoff spot.
“It was a huge win,” Shirley said. “We’ve always played good in extra innings, and it was just a huge win for us offensively and defensively. We just got the bats and pitching going.”
Farmersville will look for postseason success this weekend. The Farmers seek to advance past the first round for the fifth consecutive season. Last year, Farmersville swept Pittsburg in bi-district, with a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded ending the series.
Game 1 of this weekend’s bi-district series against North Lamar will be at 7 p.m. Friday in Farmersville. Games 2 and 3, if necessary, will be played at North Lamar on Saturday.
“It’s always good to have home-field advantage in the first game of the playoffs,” Shirley said. “Whoever wins that game will have the momentum, and the loser will have the pressure on them. Nordin always says that magical stuff happens here.”
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