The Fayette baseball team has taken its lumps so far this season. Coming off its most successful season in program history a year ago, coach Andy Oeth knew there would be pressure to repeat and even improve upon the team’s first-ever winning record. But this season’s lineup vastly differs from the team that won 12 games a year ago.

So far, the Falcons have lost their first eight games of the 2024 campaign. And while the lineup lost a lot of power from a year ago, it returned enough strength to plate some runs. After suffering shutouts over their first two games, the Falcons scored seven runs against Stover but still fell by three. They scored seven runs again during their Lewis & Clark Conference opener on April 3 but couldn’t overcome an early seven-run deficit.

“The biggest thing with us right now is that we’re trying to keep her heads up,” said Coach Oeth on Monday. “We’re really trying to focus on attitude and effort and impact.”

Despite some solid outings by starting pitchers Payton Oeth and Ethan Bean, both of whom are holding opposing lineups to .291 or under, the defense has certainly been struggling. Out of 25 runs allowed by Payton Oeth, only 10 have been earned.

“We’re really just trying to focus on the things that were struggling with the most right now, and that’s defense,” Coach Oeth said. “Honestly, we’ve had superb pitching outings by almost everybody that we’ve had on the mound. The biggest issue we have is playing defense behind them. That’s a lot of guys on base and a lot of guys scoring runs. That’s been our biggest Achilles’ heel.”

The young Falcon lineup has also struggled at the plate, hitting just .169 as a team. Although, it is the younger players in the lineup who are laying down hits. Sophomore Austin Kunze leads the team in batting average, hitting .273 in just 11 at-bats. Freshman Thaddeus Quint holds a batting average of .267 in 15 at-bats, followed by freshman Parker LaValley (.235 in 17 at-bats) and junior Thomas Elliott (.200 in 20 at-bats).

The team only has two extra-base hits so far, one double and one triple, both off the bat of junior Kaleb Friebe.

“We’re hitting the ball relatively well as far as just putting it and play. We’re not hitting necessarily a ton of bombs, but we’re putting the ball in play a lot, which is very, very important at this level,” Coach Oeth said.

“We’re keeping our heads up. We’re trying to keep our attitude and or effort strong. But we have to understand that we’re not the same team we were last year. We have to understand that we’re a young team, and therefore we’re really focusing on development.”

Coach Oeth said that seeing how many bases are earned from walks, extending pitching counts, and turning singles into doubles are part of that development. “We have to find those little victories that hopefully, in the end, all lead up to big victories.”

Fayette returns home today (Wednesday) to host a struggling Slater (1-5) lineup. The first pitch is slated for 5 p.m. at Estes Field.

The Falcons have not lost to Slater since April 20, 2011, and hope to keep a 12-game winning streak alive over the Wildcats. 

After opening the season with four straight losses, Slater picked up its first win on Saturday with a 6-5 decision over Sweet Springs in the Smithton Spring Pool.

Fayette will then take on winless Glasgow (0-5) on Thursday in a rescheduled game to kick off a three-game road trip.

“We’re not hanging our heads,” said Oeth. “We’re battling in each one of these games, even where we’ve been beaten badly. I’m excited to see that and we’re just going to keep moving forward and keep fighting. But we’ve still got a lot of season left, and we still have a tournament that is always anybody’s ball game, so we excited about that, and we’re ready to go.”