Faribault Baseball Seniors Celebrate Season Finale Win

The Faribault Falcon baseball team celebrated senior day at Bell Field with a 7-2 win over the Rochester Mayo Spartans tonight.  Six seniors were honored before the game and all six contributed to the Falcons first Big Nine win of the season.  The six seniors gave their moms large pots of colorful flowers before the game.  I didn't see the dads with any gifts.

Senior Joe Palmer threw a 4 hitter, not allowing a hit until the 5th inning.  Palmer went the distance with 4 strikeouts, 4 walks and a hit batter.  The right handed hurler threw 89 pitches, 52 for strikes with 25 of 30 first pitch strikes.

The game started with the Spartans going up and down in order in the first inning while Faribault scratched out a two out run.  Senior Mitch Nelson clubbed the two out double to get into scoring position.  Senior cleanup hitter Kipp Bonde then jumped on the first pitch he saw for a single to score Nelson.

After an up and down in order second inning the Falcons got a lead walk by leadoff batter junior Maverick Jeanes.  Joe Palmer followed with a double. Senior Mitch Nelson hit a grounder to short scoring James.  Faribault probably should have had a crooked number on the board but finished running themselves into a couple outs.

In the fourth inning Mayo starter Josh Auger walked two batters and was then pulled by Spartans Head Coach Tom Senne.  Senior Dan Drevlow jumped on the first pitch he saw from senior pitcher Levi DeYoung, hitting a sharp grounder that came back to the pitcher.  Deyoung threw to third base to get senior Andy Prange.  #9 batter Jake Dolter smacked an RBI single.  Jeans had an RBI single.  Palmer followed with an RBI single.  Nelson rolled a grounder to second that resulted in an error scoring a run.  Bonde ended the inning with a infield single.  Nelson was thrown out after rounding second base too far and that ended the inning.  The Falcons had a four run inning and took a 6-0 lead.

Faribault sophomore catcher Jordan Nawrocki was walked to start the 5th inning.  Prange hit a ground ball resulting in an out at second base.  Senior Billy Vieberg hit a single followed by senior Daniel Drevlow's RBI single.  Prange stole third base and was stranded there.

Palmer had a shut out until the top of the final inning which started with an outstanding catch of a pop up behind home plate by Nawrocki.  #7 hitter Eric Jensen was safe on a error.  #8 hitter Brevin Goetz was hit by a pitch placing runners on first and second.  Senior catcher Andrew Thompson stroked a single that was overrun in the outfield allowing Jensen to score the first run.  Goetz scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of senior Matthew Rahman.

Rochester Mayo threw three pitchers in the game.  After Deyoung finished the fourth inning junior Davis Schulz threw the last two innings.

Line totals in my scorebook were:

Faribault             7 runs    9 hits   4 errors   6 runners left, 3 scoring position

Rochester Mayo 2 runs    4 hits   1 error    6 runners left, 4 scoring position

The Falcons finish their regular season 3-17 and await section seed information Wednesday.

Rochester Mayo closes out their season Saturday 1:00 p.m. at home against Burnsville. The Spartans are 7-12 overall and 4-8 in league play.

The six seniors were our Faribault State Farm Insurance agents Faribault players of the game Joe Palmer, Mitch Nelson, Kipp Bonde, Andy Prange, Billy Vieberg and Dan Drevlow.