Falcons finish
- Updated: April 22, 2023
Three home runs, strong Game 3 pitching from Farrell help Donoho beat Sulligent 10-6, advance to second-round matchup with Fayetteville
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
Donoho got a better first-round opponent than most area champions in the Class 2A playoffs and wound up needing the stuff to survive a Game 3 Saturday and advance.
With Hayes Farrell’s pitching and three home runs, Donoho got the right stuff.
Farrell calmed Sulligent bats after a rugged start, and Peyton Webb, Nic Thompson and Blake Sewell homered to power the Falcons to a 10-6 victory at home.
Donoho (21-4) advanced next week’s second-round Class 2A series with Fayetteville at home, days and times to be determined.
“We’re going to try to move it up to Thursday-Friday,” Donoho coach Steve Gendron said. “The state championship is on a Monday, and need to start doing that early.”
First-round series pit area champions against area runners up, but Sulligent (8-12) wound up with runner-up status because of four in-season forfeits related to an ineligible player.
“They’re a good team,” Gendron said. “That’s what I told coach after the game, I would’ve liked to have seen you in the semifinals.”
A tougher-than-expected first-round opponent meant a tougher-than-expected first-round series. Sulligent won Friday’s Game 2 7-2 to force a Game 3. Donoho, which bumped up from Class 1A to 2A in baseball this season because of the AHSAA’s competitive balance rule for private schools, needed its pitching depth to come though and bats to support it.
Check and check.
Farrell went 6 2/3 innings, spreading out four hits and allowing three earned runs with two walks and five strikeouts before turning the game over the Thompson for the final out.
Farrell shook off Hunter Wood’s second-inning, two-run home run to bring Sulligent within 4-2 and the Blue Devils’ four-run rally in the top of the third to close Donoho’s lead to 7-6.
“We’re still a 1A school playing as a 2A,” Gendron said. “We didn’t magically get 20 more dudes, and in a Game 3, you’re throwing your No. 3 arm. Hayes pitched today like a one or a two, and that’s why we were in the game.
“We had one bad inning where we had a catcher interference, we had a dropped routine fly ball, and we walked a guy, and that’s when they got those runs, but he pitched his tail off. I can’t be more proud of Hayes.”
Donoho did most of the rest with long balls.
Peyton Webb’s two-run home run was the biggest blow in the Falcons’ four-run first. He upped his school-record totals to 19 career homers and 13 for this season.
Thompson’s three-run bomb gave Donoho a 7-2 lead in the second inning.
“My first at bat, I thought I got a bad call,” he said. “I thought he took the bat out of my hands, but that’s my fault. I’ve got to swing at it.
“Second at bat, I just had to relax, and it just felt electric. I tried to pump the boys up, and it just kept on going and going.”
After Sulligent closed the gap to 7-6, Sewell delivered his three-run shot in the fourth.
It was the day’s last bit of proof that Donoho has the offense when needed.
“We knew Hayes was going to put it in there and keep challenging them,” Sewell said. “We knew he was going to give us a shot, and we knew we didn’t hit the best yesterday, but we forgot about it and came ready to play.”
Cover photo: Donoho coach Steve Gendron delivers another happy postgame talk after the Falcons beat Sulligent 10-6 in the decisive Game 3 of their first-round Class 2A playoff series Saturday at home. (Photo by Joe Medley)
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