The third-seeded Fayette Falcons picked up their first district win in nine years with a 10-0 shutout over sixth-seeded Slater in five innings Friday afternoon in New Franklin.

The Falcons are playing their best season in team history. Friday’s win was their 12^th of the season.

“I am thrilled,” said Fayette coach Andy Oeth. “Being able to go into districts and compete is something I felt this team could do all year. I knew these guys could come to districts and get a win. We are right where we want to be.”

Prior to this season, Fayette had a long history of losing seasons. The best-known season occurred in 2014 when the team went 9-9. Current assistant coach Max Hilderbrand was on that team.

“I’m happy for coach Max who was there for that,” Oeth said. “It’s thrilling for me, and I’m so happy for my guys.”

Junior Moe Cisneros picked up the win on the mound for the Falcons in Monday’s district opener. He faced every batter but one. Coach Oeth pulled him after four and two-thirds innings to keep the accurate right-hander under the 60-pitch limit so that he would be available to pitch again Monday.

“I wanted to keep him under 60,” Oeth explained. “My hope is that we can rest him more than two days, but in an emergency situation, we can still have him.

Cisneros pitched a gem, allowing just two Slater base runners all game. He gave up one hit, a single, and hit one batter but retired eight hitters on strikes.

“The plan was to throw a lot of strikes and let my defense work. I trust those guys,” Cisneros said.

Cisneros is now 3-2 in four starts and 10 mound appearances this season.

“He did what we needed him to do,” Coach Oeth said about his starting pitcher. “We wanted to take a little confidence away from them. And when Moe goes up there and starts throwing his stuff, it’s a little scary. And when Moe starts turning up the heat a little bit, it’s a little scary. We wanted to really drive this win home.”

Senior Alex McBain finished out the game on the mound for the Falcons. He struck out the only batter he faced in five pitches.

“Alex has done a great job of coming in and shutting games down,” Coach Oeth said. “I felt confident that he could come in and finish that last batter off. And if he needed to, I felt confident he could come back out and finish the game for us.”

Of 58 pitches thrown by Cisneros, 42 were strikes. But he wasn’t just dominant on the mound. He led Fayette’s offense with three hits in four at-bats. He drilled the first pitch from Wildcats’ starter Seth Hunsaker for a single to center field to lead off the bottom of the first for the Falcons.

“I really just wanted to get my guys going,” he said. “Whenever one person hits, everybody hits. That’s what we did today. I thought that if he was going to throw it in the zone, I was swinging, no matter what. I wasn’t looking to walk.”

Cisneros picked up hits in the first, second, and third innings and reached base on an error in the fourth.

Perhaps the biggest hit of the game came from Tommy Elliott. Leading 8-0 with two runners on and two outs in the bottom of the fifth, the sophomore blasted a shot down the left field line to score Payton Oeth from third and Kaleb Friebe from second to end the game by way of the 10-run rule.

“It feels great,” Elliott said after the game. “Every single guy worked extremely hard to get here.”

Elliott finished 1-for-2 at the plate and was hit twice before connecting for the two-RBI double in the bottom of the fifth.

“It’s a part of baseball. It’s what I had to do,” he said about taking two pitches to the body.

After opening the game with a flyout and walk, Cisneros finished off two batters with strikeouts in the top of the first. The Fayette offense batted around the order in the bottom of the first, highlighted by three consecutive singles by Cisneros, Gage Sulltrop, and Haden Kelly, followed by two walks to go up 2-0. Two more runs scored on a passed ball and a wild pitch to give Fayette a 4-0 lead after one inning.

The Falcons continued to dial in the offensive pressure in the bottom of the second, scoring four more runs on two singles and a walk, with two errors committed by the Slater defense.

Heading into Friday’s game, Coach Oeth knew he had to motivate his players to face a winless Slater team that the Falcons had defeated handily a month prior.

“In high school baseball, any team can beat any team on any given day,” he said. “The big thing I wanted them to know was that we were not going to look past this game. We weren’t even going to look past the first three innings.”

Fayette’s offense cooled down in the next three innings while Slater shored up its defense. But after two outs in the bottom of the fifth, the Falcons focused on finishing off the game. Freshman catcher Payton Oeth earned a base after being hit for the second time. He later slid into third on a ground-ball single to center by sophomore Kaleb Friebe, who advanced to second on the throw to third.

That’s when Elliott found his pitch. The first delivery by Slater’s right-hander reliever, Chase Hemeyer, was sent to deep left field to score the game’s final two runs in walk-off fashion.

Fayette recorded eight hits in Monday’s win. Senior Haden Kelly had drove in two runs with two hits in three at-bats. Friebe finished 1-for-3 with a walk. Elliott hit the team’s only extra-base hit with his game-ending double.

The Falcons are now 12-game winners for the first time in program history. They will face second-seeded New Franklin (18-5) in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Monday. The Bulldogs had a first-round bye in the six-team tournament.

“I feel very confident going in to play New Franklin,” said coach Oeth. “They’re a great team and really well coached. Erich Gerding is a great coach. I’ve learned a lot from him over the last several years. We’re in a spot right now where I feel we can compete against New Franklin.”

Fayette lost a tight decision to New Franklin in the season opener, 3-1, on March 20. Senior Haden Kelly, the Falcons’ ace, pitched a complete game that night, and Coach Oeth said because of that, he might throw a different starter at the Bulldogs on Monday.  

“We’re going to have to be creative with our pitchers and creative with our base running,” explained Coach Oeth. “I feel like this team has the best chance and talent to go into a game against a really tough team like New Franklin and go on to a championship. There hasn’t been a team like that out of Fayette in at least nine years.”

New Franklin Coach Erich Gerding said he has also not decided who the Bulldogs will put on the mound Monday against Fayette. Senior Clayton Wilmsmeyer allowed one run on four hits with eight strikeouts in four innings of the season opener. Tanner Bishop earned the save in three innings of relief. Wilmsmeyer has won four games in seven starts this season. Bishop leads the team in wins with five in six starts with one save.

Because of the first-round bye, New Franklin will have gone a week without playing a game when the first pitch is delivered on Monday. The Bulldogs are on a nine-game winning streak that includes victories over double-digit game-winners La Plata, Pilot Grove, and Mid-Buchanan.

“They’re a good team,” Gerding said about Facing Fayette on Monday. “They’re a good, dangerous team that can beat anybody in the district.”

Regardless of the starting pitchers Monday, the semifinal is expected to be a hard-fought game for a chance to play for a district title.

“We’re going to play our game, and we’re going to play it hard,” said Elliott about Monday’s semifinal.

The winner of Monday’s game will advance to the Class 2 District 7 championship at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.