Jakoeby McDannald let out a roar when he looked at his Fair Grove dugout in the top of the seventh. He stood on third base after a bases-clearing triple, which all but guaranteed the Eagles were three outs away from their first-ever state semifinal.
Just the inning before, Fair Grove, as it has in every game this postseason, looked like its season was in jeopardy. But in this special year, for seemingly every Fair Grove athlete who donned the school’s purple, there was no reason to stop believing.
“We have a lot of seniors here, knowing it could be their last game,” McDannald, a junior, said. “We’re just playing that much harder. We’re playing for each other.”
McDannald’s second triple of the day accounted for his six RBI before scoring his second run. After all-sport standout Spensar Seiger struck out the final Clever batter of the game, the Eagles dogpiled on the pitcher’s mound for an 11-5 Class 3 quarterfinal victory.
“We’re gonna believe until we can’t believe anymore,” Eagles coach William Redd said. “These guys have been remarkable in the postseason. They just don’t give up.”
Fair Grove rallied in fifth-inning deficits in each of its four postseason wins, leading it to Wednesday’s 10 a.m. Class 4 state semifinal game at the Ozark Mountain Sports Complex in Ozark. They will play Portageville for the right to play in Thursday’s 1 p.m. championship.
Friday’s postseason win was the Eagles’ first that wasn’t by a single run. They took the lead in the top of the sixth when facing an 0-2 count with two outs. A pair of wild pitches turned into two runs and a 6-5 lead. A five-run seventh, led by McDannald’s triple, gave the Fair Grove faithful reason to start the party.
“It was just the cherry on the top,” McDannald said. “It felt amazing to have the whole crowd and everybody going. I love doing things like that for my boys.”
The state semifinal berth comes amid an unprecedented amount of success that Fair Grove athletics has had during the 2024-25 academic calendar. It follows state championships in girls’ basketball and volleyball, as well as the school’s first-ever football championship appearance, where it finished second.
Fair Grove has been led by a strong group of seniors and underclassmen who should keep the Eagles baseball program in contention for the next several years. They’ll focus on their Wednesday date with Portageville, hoping it can set them up to win the school’s first championship in a male sport.
Knowing these Eagles, they might try to come from behind to get it done.
“It’d be nice if we could see some scoring a little bit earlier in the game to make it easier,” Redd laughed. “They believe in each other and they believe in themselves. They believe in what we’re trying to do here.”
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