By Tim Danziger Photos Courtesy of Jim Klenke
There is a theme developing around the 2021 North Forney Falcons baseball team. After scoring 12 runs in their first district game, against Royse City, the Falcons went out and put up another 12 on the Poteet Pirates in a game played Tuesday, March 23 at North Forney.
12-Run Tuesday has a nice ring to it. Especially if you are the beneficiary, as the Falcons have been the past two weeks.
With sophomore Preston Crow on the mound, 12 runs was far more than the Falcons needed against Poteet as Crow was brilliant once again. Scattering three hits over his five innings pitched, Crow needed only 81 pitches – 10 fewer than he threw the week before in a win at Royse City – to dispatch the Pirates. Crow struck out 10 to run his season total to 22 over his 10 innings pitched and walked just one batter.
The Falcons continued their offensive attack, scoring 12 runs on 13 hits against Pirates’ starting pitcher DJ Coffman (2 innings, 10 hits, 8 runs, 7 earned runs) and reliever Mark Juarez (2 innings, 4 H, 4 R, 3 ER). Juan Cantua drove in four runs, and Garrett Williams and Cole Cather each had three RBI apiece as the Falcons scored in each of the first three innings.
After averting a gameopening threat from the Pirates, the Falcons took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Consecutive singles by Nick Gray and Cantua put runners on first and third with no outs. Two outs later, Cantua took advantage of a ball in the dirt to advance to second and, when catcher Robbie Armijo’s throw to second sailed into centerfield, Gray was able to jog home with the first run of the game.
The Falcons broke the game open in the bottom of the second inning, scoring seven runs on seven hits in the inning. Cather, Cole Lancaster, and JJ Humes opened the inning with singles to load the bases. With one out, Gray chopped a grounder to shortstop Gabe Rodriguez and beat the throw to first for the Falcons’ fourth single of the inning to drive in the second Falcons’ run. A double by Cantua cleared the bases, pushing the Falcons’ lead to 5-0, before the Falcons reloaded them on a single by Elian Gonzales and a walk to Jaden Gonzalez.
The Falcons expanded their lead to seven when Williams lined a single to centerfield. Cantua scored on the hit and, when the throw from centerfielder Adam Byrd sailed to the Pirates dugout, Collin Arnold, a courtesy runner for Gonzales, was able to score from second base. The seventh run of the inning, giving the Falcons an 8-0 lead, scored when Rodriguez could not make a play on a ground ball off the bat of Cather.
As was the case the week prior, Crow showed no ill effects from the long inning watching the Falcons offensive attack as he struck out the side giving him five Ks through three innings. It took just 13 pitches to get those strikeouts.
The Falcons scored four more runs in the bottom of the third inning to stretch their lead to 12-0.
Gray greeted new pitcher Juarez with a grounder to third baseman Xavier Montelongo leading off the third inning. An errant throw from Montelongo allowed the speedy Gray to advance all the way around to third base. He would score the ninth run of the game on a fielder’s choice when he beat the throw home on Cantua’s two-strike groundball to first baseman Raul Hernandez.
Three batters later, Williams doubled sharply to left field driving in Cantua and pushing Gonzalez, who had been hit by a pitch, to third base. Cather followed with another liner to left field, his third hit of the game, to drive in the final two runs for the Falcons.
The Pirates finally got on the board with two runs in the top of the fifth inning. A single, an error, and a walk loaded the bases with one out before Byrd singled into right field to score Armijo. Crow would hit the next batter, Alex Reyes, with a pitch to drive in another run before settling down to strike out the final two batters, his ninth and tenth of the game, to give the Falcons the victory.
Looking for their fourth straight district win, the Falcons made the short trip down highway 80 to Mesquite for the Friday night game and, heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, it looked like another blowout win for the Falcons. Instead, the Pirates battled back against Falcons’ closer Jayden Olsen before finally succumbing to the Falcons, 7-6.
The Falcons got on the board first again in this one, scoring four runs in the top of the fourth inning.
Pirates’ second baseman Marco Benitez dropped Preston Crow’s leadoff popup, allowing Crow to reach base, before JJ Humes was hit by an Adam Byrd pitch. With Graham Danziger batting, Tanner Ferry, running for Crow, Humes advanced one base without a throw and Ferry scored on a wild pitch two pitches later. Danziger eventually walked and would score from first base on Juan Cantua’s triple into the right field corner. Humes also scored on the play giving the Falcons a 3-0 lead.
The Falcons’ fourth run scored on Benitez’s second error of the inning. With Cantua at third, courtesy runner Collin Arnold broke from first base. The left-handed Byrd spun and faked a throw to third, before throwing to second. Benitez broke to cover the bag but was not able to handle Byrd’s throw, which bounded into centerfield, allowing Cantua to score from third.
The Falcons tacked on one more run in the top of the fifth inning as Elian Gonzales’s fly ball into centerfield was misplayed for an error allowing Gray, who walked earlier in the inning, to score.
The Pirates had a chance to break their scoring drought in the bottom of the fifth. An error by Crow at third base allowed Armijo to reach second with no outs. However, courtesy runner Omar Urista was doubled off second when Danziger dove to his left to snare a low line drive before flipping the ball to shortstop Garrett Williams for the second out of the inning. Left fielder Justin Adams grounded out to second baseman Danziger to end the inning.
Danziger would come up big offensively in the next half inning, doubling off the base of the wall in left center to drive in two runs, and push the Falcons’ lead to 7-0.
Cole Lancaster (5 innings pitched, 2 hits, 0 runs, 4 strikeouts, 1 walk) was cruising, having thrown only 61 pitches before being replaced by Olsen to start the bottom of the sixth inning.
Struggling to get comfortable on a mound that had given both teams’ pitchers trouble all night, Olsen got off to a rocky start. A walk, a hit-by-pitch, and a single loaded the bases before a passed ball allowed the Pirates’ first run to score.
After striking out Marlon Lavalais for the first before Olsen was able to get Adams to swing and miss at a pitch out of the zone to end the inning.
The Pirates seemed to have all the momentum heading into the final frame and, after quickly setting the Falcons down in order in the top half of the seventh, came out looking for the win against new pitcher Collin Arnold.
Byrd got the inning started with a liner up the middle that Danziger was able to get to but could not make a play on. The error brought the potential tying run to the plate in the person of Reyes, who promptly lined one into the hole at shortstop. Lancaster, now at shortstop, was able to get to the ball but did not have play.
A strikeout and a fly out put the Pirates in a two-out hole before Hernandez lined Arnold’s two-strike pitch into left field to score a run and pull the Pirates within one at 7-6. With the tying run on second base, Arnold got Jeffrey Young to swing and miss for strike three to end the game.
The victory pushed the Falcons to 4-0, and into first place in District 13-5A, before their showdown with crosstown rivals, Forney.
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