After sweeping through the first three weeks of the district season against Royse City, Mesquite Poteet and Forney, three of the better teams in District 13-5A, the North Forney Falcons received a bit of a reprieve last week when they took on the West Mesquite Wranglers (5-17-1 overall; 0-8 in district).
In what might have been a trap series for the Falcons, they instead took care of business, winning both games by scores of 16-1 and 10-0 to improve to 8-0 in district and 23-3-1 overall. The Falcons, holding first place in district, are now ranked in several area and statewide baseball polls.
Preston Crow (4-0 in district) took the mound for the Falcons in Tuesday night’s home game and immediately picked up where he had left off against Forney the previous week, needing only nine pitches to get out the first inning. After quickly disposing of the Wranglers, Crow would have to wait nearly an hour before stepping back onto the field for the second inning. By then, his teammates had given him a 13-run lead. In a half inning that lasted 57 minutes and saw three Wranglers pitchers throw 97 pitches, North Forney got only five hits, four of them singles, but were the recipients of 11 walks. Twice in the inning, West pitchers, struggling with command and unable to find the strike zone, walked four batters in a row. The Falcons sent 19 batters to the plate.
Azarias Herrera started for the Wranglers but was unable to get an out while throwing 48 pitches. Herrera gave up four of the Falcons’ five hits in the inning, and walked five batters, while giving up the first nine runs. Julian Rodriguez relieved Herrera and fared only slightly better, getting two outs while giving up four runs without a hit, and walking another five batters. Draden Lucas finished the inning, giving up a single to Garrett Williams to score the Falcons’ final run of the inning, before getting the final out of the inning.
The big hit in the inning was left fielder Juan Cantua’s RBI triple into right center field, scoring leadoff hitter Nick Gray who had walked to open the inning. It was the fifth time in seven district games that Gray had reached base in his first plate appearance. Gray would walk again later in the inning, one of three Falcons, along with second baseman Graham Danziger and shortstop Cole Lancaster, to walk in their first two plate appearances, all in the first inning.
The long layoff did not seem to bother Crow who struck out two of the three batters he faced in the second inning. After throwing 111 pitches in his win over Forney the previous week, Crow threw only 30 pitches over three innings before being relieved by Collin Arnold to start the fourth inning. Crow struck out four Wranglers and did not allow a base runner over his three innings.
Arnold was greeted with a line drive base hit by Julian Rodriguez to open the fourth inning. West would score their only run of the game two batters later. After Herrera struck out, Lucas hit a slow grounder to JJ Humes seeing his first action of the season at third base. Humes fielded the ball cleanly but his throw was wild allowing Rodriguez to score, making the score 13-1. Two ground outs
Two ground outs would get Arnold out of the inning without any additional damage being done.
The Falcons would strike for three runs in the bottom half of the fourth inning. First baseman Jaden Gon
First baseman Jaden Gonzalez (2-3, 3B, 3 R, 3 RBI), one of the few Falcons starters still in the game, tripled to deep center to score Austin Garrison and Arnold. Garrison was on base via a one-out single, and Arnold had reached on error. A second error in the inning, a dropped fly ball off the bat of Humes, would score Gonzalez for the Falcons’ final run of the game.
Gonzalez would close out the game for the Falcons, running into some trouble and then getting a heads up play from catcher Cole Cather to end the potential rally.
After two quick strikeouts, Gonzalez walked the next three batters to load the bases. However, Gabe Quinones, perhaps thinking the bases were already loaded, began jogging toward the plate. Recognizing that he was off the base, Cather threw to third baseman Dylan Felts, who put the tag on Quinones to end the game.
Cole Lancaster (4-0 in district) also threw only three innings, giving up just a first inning single to first base man Jose Estrada, while striking out six in the Friday game at JJ Tillery Field on the campus of West Mesquite. The Falcons would need only three hits and, again, were helped by six walks and three Wranglers errors in the victory.
The Falcons took another early lead against the Wranglers, scoring two runs in the first inning against Azarias Herrera, who had a much better outing in the return game.
Nick Gray again reached base in his first plate appearance, as his fly ball to deep left field hit off the glove of Sam Stovall, allowing Gray to speed around to third base. After Juan Cantua was hit by a pitch, catcher Elian Gonzales drove a two-strike pitch into centerfield, scoring Gray. Cantua went to third on the play and scored on a wild pitch.
Three more runs crossed the plate for the Falcons in the top of second inning, as they pushed their lead to 5-0. Second baseman Graham Danziger’s ground out scored shortstop Jorge Herrera, who had reached on error to start the inning and moved to third on a double by third baseman Garrett Williams. A single by Gray would drive in Williams with the fourth run, and Gray would later score on a ground out by Gonzales.
The third inning brought four more runs for the Falcons. Right fielder JJ Humes opened the inning being hit by a pitch and was on third when designated hitter Preston Crow grounded out to shortstop. The ground out brought Humes home. Herrera walked, took second on a wild pitch and went to third on a ground out by Williams. With Danziger at bat, Herrera would score on a wild pitch.
Danziger would walk and steal second before a wild pitch moved him to third. He would score on another wild pitch before batter Gray walked. Gray stole sec ond and scored the Falcons’ ninth run of the game from there on a botched pick off play that saw the Herrera’s throw go into centerfield.
With the game well in hand, the Falcons turned to Juan Cantua and Jayden Olsen to pitch the final two innings. Neither gave up a run, although both gave up a hit in their half inning of work. Olsen struck out the side around the hit and he also walked one.
The Falcons’ final run came in the top of the fifth as Danziger opened with a hard chopper down the third base line. Julian Rodriguez made a diving stop to hold it to a single. After stealing second and third, Danziger would come home on a ground out to second base by Cantua.
At 8-0, the Falcons face their toughest challenge of the season this week against Highland Park (7-1) in a battle for first place in district. Tuesday’s game was played at HP and the Friday game will be at home. Winning both games would put the Falcons in the driver’s seat toward the district championship. A split would mean the Falcons would still control their own destiny with two series left to close out the regular season.
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