There was no doubt which was the better team in last week’s series between crosstown rivals as North Forney took control in the first inning of Tuesday’s game against the Forney Jackrabbits and never let up. When the dust cleared, the Falcons had earned their first ever season sweep of the Jackrabbits. These were only the Falcons’ fourth and fifth wins all time against perennial baseball power Forney.
At 6-0 for the first time in school history, the 21-3-1 Falcons find themselves leading District 13-5A. Forney falls to 3-3 on the district season.
In Tuesday night’s game one at Forney, the Falcons scored six runs on just six hits, while pitchers Preston Crow and Collin Arnold scattered seven Jackrabbits hits, limiting Forney to three runs, in North Forney’s 6-3 victory.
Center fielder Nick Gray, (1-3, RBI, 3R) provided an early spark for the Falcons, showcasing his speed as North jumped out to a 1-0 first inning lead.
Gray walked to lead off the game, took second on errant pick-off attempt from Forney starting pitcher Jake White, and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt off the bat of left fielder Juan Cantua. A walk to catcher Elian Gonzales put runners on first and third before first baseman Jaden Gonzalez (1-3, RBI) drove a 3-1 pitch to deep left field for an RBI double.
With runners on second and third and just one out, White was able to get the two next batters out on strikes to limit the damage. He settled in for the next three innings, facing just the minimum nine batters over that span.
Sophomore Preston Crow (3-0 in district), who came into the game having struck 22 batters over 10 innings of district play, was equal to White, striking out the side in the bottom of the first inning, and giving up just two hits over the first four innings.
The Falcons maintained their slim 1-0 lead into the top half of the fifth inning when they struck for three runs to extend their lead to 4-0.
Shortstop Cole Lancaster led off the inning with a ground ball base hit up the middle and was followed by right fielder JJ Humes, who doubled to put runners at second and third with no outs. One batter later, Gray pushed a bunt toward first baseman Rylan Byrd, who fielded the ball but could not make a play on the speedster allowing Lancaster to score. Cantua (2-3, R, 2 RBI) followed with another base hit scoring both Humes and Gray, the latter beating the tag with a headfirst slide.
The Jackrabbits took advantage of a fielding error, a single and a groundout by Josh Stephens to score one run in the bottom half of the fifth, closing within three runs, but could get no closer in this one.
North Forney tacked on two more runs, courtesy of two wild pitches from reliever Edgar Muniz in the top of the seventh inning, pushing their lead to 6-1.
Cantua’s second hit of the game moved Gray, on base through a fielder’s choice, to second base and both moved up 90 feet when Gonzalez walked to load the bases. With third baseman Garrett Williams facing a 0-2 count, Muniz uncorked his first wild pitch, allowing Gray to score; his second wild pitch, scoring Cantua, came two pitches later.
Having thrown 102 pitches through six innings, Crow came out for the seventh and quickly got the first two outs before running into trouble.
A ground out and his tenth strikeout of the game was followed by a ground ball deep in the hole toward second that was fielded by Graham Danziger, but Danziger could not make a play on Stephens.
Crow (6.2 innings, 2R, 1ER, 5 H, 10 K, 1BB) exited the game and was relieved by Collin Arnold who was greeted by White’s single into right field. After hitting pinch hitter Cannon Donlay to load the bases, Arnold gave up a two-run scoring single to Trent McGee. With the score 6-3 and the tying run at the plate, Arnold got Ryan Dickey to roll a routine grounder to Lancaster, who made a strong throw to Gonzalez at first to end the game.
It took the Falcons offense a few innings to get going in the return game played Thursday night at home. Wearing their Dirtbags uniforms, a name that has come to symbolize the 2021 Falcons, North scored two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, shutting out the Jackrabbits 4-0 for the sweep.
Cole Lancaster continued the string of solid pitching for the Falcons in the return game on Thursday night at North Forney. Lancaster went 6.1 innings, giving up only five hits, before giving way to closer Jayden Olsen, who struck out the two batters he faced, in the shutout win. Lancaster finished with six strikeouts, the most important of which was a swinging strikeout to get out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the fourth inning. It was the only time he was challenged in this game.
The Falcons got on the board, taking a 2-0 lead, in their half of the fourth inning when first baseman Preston Crow singled home catcher Elian Gonzales and right fielder JJ Humes, who had both singled earlier in the inning.
After a 1-2-3 top of the fifth inning, the Falcons once again went to work on offense posting two more runs to extend their advantage to 4-0.
Consecutive walk to Nick Gray and Juan Cantua drove Jackrabbits’ starter Ryan Dickey from the game. Jake McMahan entered in relief and got the first two hitters he faced out before being relieved by Rylan Byrd. Byrd was greeted by Humes, who delivered a hard grounder that hit the second base bag and ricocheted into left center field for a 2-RBI single.
Lancaster, closing in on the pitch count limit, walked the first batter he faced in the top of seventh inning and got a soft fly ball out before giving way to Olsen. The hard throwing righty came in and shut the door, getting both batters he faced on called third strikes to end the game.
The Falcons will look to stay undefeated in district play this week against the West Mesquite Wranglers (0-3, 5-12-1), before what should be their biggest test of the season next week against the Highland Park Scots (10-9, 3-1) who were idle last week as West Mesquite dealt with covid protocol.
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