After sweeping through the first four weeks of the District 13-5A season, the North Forney Falcons suffered their first loss two weeks ago. Although the 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Highland Park Scots left both teams with matching 8-1 records, based on head-to-head record, the loss dropped the Falcons into second place, just behind HP. North Forney would stay there exactly six days as the Falcons came back to beat HP 5-2 in the return game and leapfrog back into first place with just four games left in the district season.
Falcons’ starting pitcher Cole Lancaster (6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 10 K, 3 BB) outdueled Collin Valentine, a University of Texas-commit, to take the win. Jayden Olsen, helped by a 4-6-3 double play to end a Highland Park threat in the seventh, got the save.
As they had done just six days earlier, the Scots jumped out to an early 1-0 lead by pushing a run across in the top of the first inning. After doubling and scoring to lead off the first game between these two teams, Harrison Dugger led this one off with a walk. He would later score on a sacrifice fly by catcher Josh Bowers.
As they did in the first matchup, the Falcons quickly fought back in this with one, pushing two runs across in their half of the first to take a 2-1 lead.
Leadoff hitter Nick Gray (1-2, 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI) walked to reach base and moved to second when Valentine fielded Juan Cantua’s bunt, but his throw pulled Calvin Williams off the bag for an error. JJ Humes followed with a sacrifice bunt to move both runners up 90 feet and Gray scored the Falcons’ first run on a Valentine wild pitch. Cantua crossed the plate three pitches later when third baseman Hunter Kraus could not handle a shot off the bat of Jaden Gonzales.
The Falcons would extend their lead to 3-1 in the second as Gray would double with two outs to drive in Jorge Herrera (2-3, 2 R), who had singled earlier in the inning.
Lancaster would run into trouble in the top of the third as the Scots picked up a run to cut the lead to 3-2. With runners on second and third, and one out, shortstop Preston Gamster lifted a fly ball into left field for a sacrifice fly. Right fielder Patrick Turner, who had singled to open the inning, came home to score on the play. Lancaster would get Kraus to strike out swinging to limit the damage.
North pushed their lead to three runs, 5-2, in the bottom of the fourth. Cantua’s one-out single would drive in Herrera, who had singled to open the inning. Graham Danziger, who reached base by walk, would get to third on the play and would score the Falcons’ fifth run on Humes’ fielder’s choice.
Lancaster would pitch into the seventh inning, being removed after reaching his pitch limit and walking designated hitter Jack Curtis. Olsen came in and quickly got second baseman Sam Sessions to swing and miss at strike three for the first out of the inning. A single put runners on first and second before Olsen got Turner to roll into a double play to end the game.
The win pushed the Falcons back into first place just ahead of the 8-2 Scots (15-11 overall) and the Royse City Bulldogs (8-2 in district, 14-12-1 overall).
The Falcons headed to Crandall on Tuesday, 4/20, for the first of two district games against the Pirates. The cold weather could not slow down North as they took advantage of nine walks from Pirates’ pitchers in a 13-3 victory. With the win, the Falcons improved to 10-1 in district play (25-4- 1 overall). The loss dropped the Pirates to 4-7 in district, and 13-11-1 overall.
Nick Gray and Cole Cather led the way, both going 3-3 with a double in the game. Cather had three RBI and scored three runs. Preston Crow took the mound for the Falcons and needed only 81 pitches over 5 innings for the win. Crow gave up only two hits, while striking out six batters. He did not walk a batter and none of the runs against him were earned.
Second baseman Graham Danziger got the Falcons on the board with a one-out single through the left side of the infield in the top of the second. The base hit was the third in a row and brought home catcher Elian Gonzales, who had walked to open the inning. Nick Gray was hit by a pitch drive in another run before Juan Cantua walked to score the Falcons’ third run of the inning. The fourth run scored on a ground out by right fielder JJ Humes.
The Pirates got one run back in the bottom half of the inning on a sacrifice fly to Cantua. The lead grew to 5-1 in the top of the third inning as third baseman Garrett Williams and Cather both scored. Williams came across on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Collin Arnold; Cather scored on Gray’s three hits.
An error, a single and a sacrifice bunt had Crandall runners at second and third to open the bottom half of the third inning. A passed ball allowed one run to score before Pirates’ starting pitcher Austin Cruse lifted a sacrifice fly to Gray in centerfield to halve the Falcons’ lead at 6-3.
Both teams went down without a run in the fourth before North put the game away in the fifth inning. The Falcons scored seven runs on just two hits in the frame, a single by Gray and a bases clearing double by Cather, and were beneficiaries of three walks. Danziger, Cantua and Humes were all hit by Cordell Hernandez pitches in the inning.
In their quest for the first district title in school history, the win kept the Falcons one spot ahead of both Highland Park and Royse City in the standings, with just three games left in district play. The Falcons swept the Bulldogs in week one of district play, and all three teams were off last Friday as storms moved into the DFW area.
The Falcons continued their series against Crandall on Monday, and their final series of the season began Tuesday at home, against Greenville. The season finale will be played Friday night at 7:30 pm in Greenville.
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