The Fayette baseball team is coming off its most successful season ever after finishing above .500 for the first time last year, 12-11 overall. But the Falcons will be without many of the components that lifted them into their first winning season in program history.

Fayette graduated eight seniors from last year’s squad, including starting pitcher and powerhouse hitter Hayden Kelly, and will not return Moe Cisneros, who, as a junior last year, the team could count on not only in the lineup but anywhere on the field on defense.

But that doesn’t mean the Falcons start this season with a blank slate. Coach Andy Oeth said his team is not rebuilding but rather forging a new culture for baseball in Fayette. And not just at the high school level. Players in younger grades are developing their skills on travel teams and summer leagues in Boonville. High school players formed a Legion team over the summer and worked on fundamentals throughout the offseason.

“We’re in a place where baseball is really growing in Fayette. We’ve got a club team or a league team in every single age group,” Oeth said. “I’m just really excited about where we are as a community with baseball right now.”

So, while Fayette may not bring back all of the ingredients from last year’s winning team, a foundation is being built from the ground up to produce a new era of Fayette baseball.

And the construction could not start early enough. This season will conclude Fayette’s five-decade membership in the Lewis & Clark Conference. And while the L&C maintains strong teams such as Salisbury and Westran, the Central State 8, which Fayette is helping to form, will boast top-tier teams such as Eugene, Harrisburg, Russellville, and South Callaway.

Oeth, now in his third season as head coach at Fayette, said that while breaking away from the L&C is bittersweet, he expects to keep Salisbury and Westran on the schedule due to their quality programs and close proximity.

“The Lewis & Clark overall is a great baseball conference,” Oeth said. “I’m looking forward to the Central State 8 as well. They’ve all been good at baseball recently. Russellville is one of the best teams in the state. Eugene is always great. New Bloomfield has had a lot of success recently. South Callaway just has so many great athletes.

“I want us to look at it like this is a conference that’s going to make us better. We’re going to see a lot of really good baseball players and a lot of really good coaching, play at some really cool places. All these places have these awesome little ballparks that are just so much fun to play in.”

A big part of Fayette’s new look this year will start on the mound. The Falcons lose two of their top three pitchers but return the No. 2 arm from a year ago, Payton Oeth. As a freshman last season, the powerful righty racked up the second most innings, 40.2, and finished even at 3-3 in seven starts. Of the top three from last year, Oeth recorded the lowest ERA, 1.721, and held opponents to a batting average of .217, the lowest in Fayette’s starting triad.

“He’s one of those rare pitchers of his size who can throw as hard as he does and also has really great stuff,” said Coach Oath about his son, now a sophomore. “He’s got a really great curveball. He throws this nasty knuckle curve thing that he thinks is so funny to throw. And he’s also been developing a better changeup as well.”

But when Oeth is on the mound, Fayette loses its top catcher. The sophomore is a wall behind the plate and shuts down the run game. 

But a Class 2 team with 12 to 14 players must make adjustments. Of those roughly dozen players, Oeth said he has more dual-sport players than ever. Fayette offers baseball, track, and golf in the spring. Athletes may play more than one sport but must declare a primary. One of those is junior Jacob Wood, who brings power at the plate and will serve as designated hitter when not dominating the throwing events in track & field competitions.

Serving as the team’s second pitcher is sophomore Ethan Bean, who saw limited varsity innings a year ago. Behind him in the rotation will be juniors Kaleb Friebe and Thomas Elliott.

Oeth said Friebe will likely pitch most of his innings in relief since he is needed both in the infield (last year, he started at second base) and catcher when Payton Oeth is pitching.

“I felt confident in Thomas Elliott and Kaleb Friebe stepping in as relievers, but they both have come into camp commanding the ball,” Coach Oeth said. “I’ve been very impressed with that. They both put in work in the offseason. They’re both looking pretty good.”

And while Elliott doesn’t throw fire, Coach Oeth said the junior righty will pitch to contact and let his defense go to work.

When not on the mound, Elliott will likely be the team’s starter at first base. 

“He filled that role a little last season,” Oeth said. “We also have a couple of other good options in Caleb Craig and Austin Kunze. When Tommy pitches, I think right now Caleb Craig’s a pretty viable option.”

In fact, the team has a cadre of players who will likely cover all infield positions throughout the season when pitching changes occur. Freshman Ledgyr Conrow and Bean are two others amid the mix of infielders this season.

Craig is also expected to get the start this year in left field after racking up innings in junior varsity action last year. Oeth said the sophomore returned with a renewed sense of the ball. “He really sees it better. He’s gotten a lot more rangy. He’s feeling much more comfortable, and he looks like he’s maybe a junior or senior playing outfield, which is huge because outfield play in high school baseball is just so pivotal.”

Center field will be patrolled by Parker LaValley. While only a freshman, he earned valuable experience on the Legion team over the summer. 

“He’s very fast and very rangy, and he has a real sense of where the ball is going,” Oeth said. “Parker’s been so coachable. We got to work with him a lot on that during our summer program and during preseason baseball.” 

Another freshman will pin down flies in right field. Oeth said that Thaddius Quint has proven himself in preseason ball and in camp so far. “He’s got a good arm in right field, but he’s also got a good sense of that area. Right field can be tough at Estes because it’s short and so it’s hard sometimes because you play almost too far in. He’s got some speed, and he’s a really good athlete.” 

Sophomore Austin Kunze will also earn time in the outfield. “He’s really fast, and he has shown he’s been a gamer in summer ball,” Oeth said.

At the plate, Friebe will lead off the young lineup. He finished with the team’s fourth-best batting average a year ago at .294 in 79 plate appearances and delivered two walk-off hits.

As a sophomore, Friebe batted both leadoff and second most games last year. “Kaleb hit the ball really well last season. He gets on base,” Oeth said.

Getting on base early will be essential to Fayette’s ability to manufacture runs this year. The second spot will either go to Bean or Conrow, both of whom have the ability to reach base with hits. As a freshman last season, Bean had one varsity hit and scored two runs in eight plate appearances. Oeth said the sophomore has a propensity to consistently hit the ball right up the middle.

Peyton Oeth will undoubtedly bat third. He led the team a year ago with a .364 batting average and an on-base plus slugging (OPS) percentage of .482. He tied team-bests in total hits with 24 and home runs with two, both with then-senior Hayden Kelly. Last season, Oeth drove in a second-best 15 runs with 18 runs scored.

The No. 4 spot will likely fluctuate between Elliott and Wood. Oeth said Elliott has proven to be able to hit with some power and had a walk-off hit in districts a year ago. 

Wood, a DH, brings serious power but will only be available on days without track meets. “He’s a rip-it-and-grip-it swinger,” Oeth said. “He’s been hitting a lot when he’s come to practice after track. He’s really driving the ball. If he gets a hold of one, it’s destroyed. He’s very strong.”

The bottom half of the order is undecided. Craig, Kunze, LaValley, Conrow, and Quint will likely all step up to the plate in the five through nine spots. 

Oeth said he also sees a bright spot in the team’s only senior, Gabe Bonen, as the ninth hitter. “I would probably make sure he’s down there because I have much more of a habit of hiding a good hitter there,” Oeth said. “Parker would be such a good nine-hole hitter because they’re going to try to mamby-pamby him, and then he’ll drive one. He’s a good hitter, and he’s fast. It’s like having that second leadoff hitter guy down at the bottom of the lineup.”

Falcon fans will get their first look at the team next Friday when Fayette travels to Higbee for opening day. It’s the first time in years the two teams have met on the diamond, despite practically being neighbors. 

“They’re a good squad,” he said. “I’m ready for a new matchup.”

The Tigers finished 14-1 last year behind the hot arm of Derek Rockett. As a junior, he averaged 2.3 strikeouts an inning, retiring 112 of 176 batters on strikes.

“You never want to face a pitcher whose last name is Rockett,” Oeth said in jest.

Rockett is an exceptional athlete. On the basketball court, he scored 2,512 career points. On the diamond last season, he led the Tigers with an astounding batting average of .596 and an OPS of 1.746 with a 1.043 slugging percentage.

Rockett wasn’t the only sure hitter on the team. He led a group of six batters who all hit .300 or better.

The first pitch is at 5 p.m. at Higbee.

Three days later, Fayette plays its home opener against a familiar opponent, New Franklin. The Falcons play home games on Central Methodist’s all-turf Estes Field. 

New Franklin returns the majority of a lineup that finished 19-6 a year ago and 10-1 at home. Coach Erich Gerding and the Bulldogs ended last season with a loss to the eventual state runner-up, Salisbury, in the district championship.

“They’re always good,” Oeth said about New Franklin. “They’ve got some great players on this team. They’re all friends and love each other and play each other on or with each other during the summers. They’re a great team all around, and that’ll be a tough one.”

Fayette’s veteran team from a year ago fell just short in a 3-1 loss at New Franklin to open the 2023 season. This year, the Falcons’ youth and inexperience will be thoroughly tested against a veteran Bulldog squad.

Oeth said that despite finishing with the first winning record in team history last season, he doesn’t feel the pressure to improve on that milestone right away. Instead, he is in the business of building a program and helping his players become good adults. 

“What is more important is that these guys are going to become members of this community, and I want to make sure that we’re turning out good citizens, good dads and husbands, and sons and brothers. That’s my goal here,” he said.

“I don’t feel like wins and losses are the best way to motivate them. They need to understand that failure is not necessarily the enemy. I think a fear of adversity is the enemy. So, we need to embrace the fact that we’ve got a tall task ahead of us. We’re not the team that we were last year. We’re a different team. We’re going to take the lessons we’ve learned and move forward. We’ve got to break down everything and rebuild every year because every team is different. We have a lot of great pieces from that team last year that are going to help us move forward. We’re going to fill in some gaps with some guys who are inexperienced, and we’re definitely a young team.”

The home opener will start at 5 p.m. on Monday, March 18, at CMU’s Estes Field.