As the Fayette Falcon baseball team went to bed Wednesday evening, they felt they had come up short in a 9-8 loss at Slater. That thought lasted until mid-morning on Thursday when Fayette Athletic Director Mike James received a call from Slater Athletic Director Bob Gonzalez notifying him of an issue that had occurred the previous night. 

To protect pitchers' arms, the Missouri State High School Activities Association has determined a pitch limit of 105 pitches for juniors and seniors per day. Slater reported to MSHSAA that their starting pitcher had thrown 167 pitches during the contest. Because of this oversight, Slater was forced to forfeit the game to Fayette raising the Falcon record to 2-4 and taking Slater to 0-3 on the 2021 season. The official score will be listed as 7-0 Fayette, and all statistics will remain intact.

“It was a pretty frustrating game,” said Fayette Coach Charles Trick. “We walked nine batters in the first inning. After that point, we were really phenomenal with our defense as well as our pitching. Offensively, we were able to put up eight runs which is a big step in the right direction for us.”

Although the preference would have been to earn the win on the field, Fayette will take the win and look to the future.