1A State Championship

Fayetteville v Abbott

On a beautiful Saturday morning, the visiting Abbott Panthers took on the home team Fayetteville Lions.  The sun was bright, the wind blowing slightly from right field to left field.  The Panthers would wear their whites with a black stripe across the front and gold lettering.  The Lions in grey shirts with white lettering.

The battery for Abbott will be Brent Mynar on the mound and Matthew Urbanovsky behind the dish.  The battery for Fayetteville will be Damon Gerik on the mound and Payton Hemmitt behind the dish.

The first and second innings were rather uneventful with both pitchers inducing ground balks and striking out batters.  There was no score at the end of the 2^nd and combined only 3 runners had been on base.  The Panthers found lady luck in the top of the third thanks to 3 Fayetteville errors.  On just 3 hits, Abbott would score 6 runs.  Fayetteville would get the first one back in the bottom of the 3^rd on a sacrifice fly by Payton Hemmitt scoring Damon Gerik.

With 2 outs in the top of the 4^th, Abbott would get the next two batters on but couldn’t get a 2 outs rally going as Matthew Pevehouse would ground out to Lane Fritsch at 2^nd.  Fayetteville would gain some ground in their half of the 4th.  A single and walk and a single followed by an E6 and 3 runs would cross home plate.  The fourth ended 6-4 with Abbott in the lead.

Top of five went quick for Abbott who only sent 4 batters to the plate.  Fayetteville would go down 1-2-3 on two strikeouts and a popout to the catcher.  Abbott had two quick hit to leadoff the 6^th and capatlized on a couple of stolen bases by Brent Mynar and 2 errors by Fayetteville to score two.  Fayetteville wasn’t done as 4 hits in a row – two of them triples but the tying run on first before Abbott was forced to make another pitching change.  Hunter Pope took the mound score 8-7, no outs and the tying run on first.  A sac bunt and two flyouts to the outfield and Abbott would be back in the dugout.

Abbott wasn’t done putting runs on the board.  In the top of the 7^th, a leadoff double would put Jace Kolar on 2^nd. A wild pitch and an E6 scores him.  After 2 outs, Nolan Kaska would get on with a bunt, the driven in by Weston Cantrell who was driven in by Brent Mynar.  The top of the 7^th would end with Abbott up 11 to 7.   Hunter Pope would face four batters in the bottom half and retiring three of them promptly to give Abbott its first State 1A Baseball Championship.

WP – Brent Mynar (6-1) Save Hunter Pope
LP –  Damon Gerik (5-3)
Player of the Game:  Brent Mynar