It just feels good to win.”

Malakai Graves

A walk-off ground ball in the bottom of the seventh by senior Malakai Graves gave Fayette its 11th win of the year Monday night at home against Tipton. The two teams battled in a pitchers’ duel through six and a half innings until the middle of Fayette’s lineup delivered at the plate.

“It just feels good to win,” Graves said. “I’m just glad it was a close game, and we could win. We needed that to start off the week.”

With a 0-0 game after six and a half innings, freshman Payton Oeth got his second hit of the game with a line drive down the left field line. He rounded first and slid into second base in time to beat the throw to give the Falcons a runner in scoring position to start off the bottom of the inning.

“We’re an athletic team overall. And our coaching staff decided early on to be aggressive on the base paths,” said Fayette coach Andy Oeth. “We can trust Payton to get around and be a good base runner.”

Oeth advanced to third on a sacrifice fly down the right field line by sophomore Kaleb Friebe.

With a runner at third and one out, Tipton walked Fayette’s next batter, sophomore Tommy Elliott with the hopes of inducing a double play.

Graves was hitless in two at-bats heading to the plate. 

“It was like, ‘You think I’m not that good? I’m going to prove you different.’ I’m just glad we won, bottom line,” said Graves after the game.

Graves said Tipton’s pitcher, sophomore Lucas Cashman, had consistently thrown first-pitch fastballs. “Almost every first pitch was a fastball. So, I was like, ‘All right, I’m going to swing at this one,’” he said.

Graves swung on the first pitch to send it bouncing to second baseman William Cashman. Oeth got a solid jump at third base and easily scored. 

“Payton’s got such a long stride that he was already halfway there when the kid was ready to throw home,” said Coach Oeth.

Despite Graves’s early struggles at the plate Monday, Coach Oeth said he felt confident his senior could make contact. “I said, ‘If they’re putting him on, I just want you to do what you’ve been doing and look for something to drive.’ Malakai just answered the call. That’s senior leadership at its finest,” Coach Oeth said. “We could have done a number of things there. But the way Malachi has been making contact, I just felt like if he got a good ground ball, and Payton is a smart enough base runner.”

Payton Oeth had another quality start on the mound, pitching six and a third scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts. He allowed two hits and walked two batters. 

“Payton was relying on a good balance of his heat and his stuff. He was really pitching with efficiency,” said Coach Oeth. “They really battled back and forth. Our guys couldn’t get much off them, and they couldn’t get much off of Payton.”

After retiring the first batter of the seventh inning, Oeth left the mound with 97 pitches under his belt. Senior Alex McBain induced the next two batters into groundouts to preserve the shutout and eventually earn the win.

“Alex just seems to find a way at the end of games to get outs,” Coach Oeth said. “He’s a kid who I’ve always known has that. I’m really proud of him for being able to close that out. That was big.”

Monday’s win was Fayette’s 11th of the season and is believed to be the most in program history. Graves said it comes down to the Falcons playing together as a team. “That’s why we’ve been getting success lately,” he said. “It makes us feel good. We’re just playing together as a family.”

The Falcons were to host Pilot Grove (13-10) for senior Tuesday after the Advertiser went to press. On Thursday, they play their final game of the regular at home against Eugene (13-7) before entering the Class 2 District 7 Tournament with a 2 p.m. game Friday against sixth-seeded Slater (0-13).

Third-seeded Fayette easily handled the Wildcats with an 18-5 win on the road on April 12. Coach Oeth said the key is not to allow his team to overlook Slater. A win Friday would pit the Falcons against host team and second-seeded New Franklin (18-5) on Monday. 

New Franklin defeated Fayette in the season opener 3-1. 

“We’re set up nicely for a big run in districts,” Coach Oeth said.

The semifinal winner will likely face top-seeded Salisbury (18-1) in the championship game. Neither team has beaten the Panthers this season.