Members of the Faith Lutheran baseball team celebrate after capturing the Class 3A state title with an 8-4 win over Lowry at Virgin Valley in Mesquite on May 21 in the championship game. The Crusaders won two titles at the 2A level before moving up in class this season.--(Special to View)
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Despite trailing in several games in both the NIAA 3A Southern League regional and the state baseball playoffs, both held at Virgin Valley High School in Mesquite, Faith Lutheran still found a way to go undefeated in the postseason and capture its third straight state title.
The Crusaders defeated the top-seed from the North, Lowry, 8-4, on May 21 in the state championship game to win its first 3A crown after moving up from 2A last year. Sophomore Dave Anderson went 3-for-4 for Faith Lutheran in the championship game and John Nixon, Adam Jones, Jeff Farnham and Adam Buccieri had two hits apiece for the Crusaders (27-12) who won their last 14 games to wind-up the unforgettable season.
Faith Lutheran made it to the title tilt by topping Southern League rival Boulder City, 5-4, on May 20 in the state semifinals as Farnham went 3-for-4 and senior hurler Mark Marfoglia (8-0, 3.45 earned run average) threw a four-hitter to pick up the win. Earlier in the day in their opener at state, the Crusaders fell behind the North's No. 2-seed North Tahoe, 5-0 before rallying for a 9-8 win sparked by Grant Fowler's grand slam in the bottom of the sixth.
The team qualified for the state playoffs the previous weekend in Mesquite by winning the Southern League regional, rallying to beat Boulder City, 12-7 in the championship game on May 14. Faith Lutheran ousted the league's No. 3-seed and tourney host Virgin Valley, 7-5 on May 13 and eliminated the No. 4-seed Pahrump Valley, 16-6 earlier in the day in the regional opener.
First-year coach Tony Girod was thrilled to help guide the Crusaders to the title but had mixed emotions that the fun ride had come to an end.
"It's sad that it's all over now," he said. "It was a great experience for the kids and especially for the six seniors who are graduating this year. The other players really wanted it bad for them and wanted them to go out on top. It was special."
Girod, who was an assistant coach last season and helped Faith Lutheran to a 30-7 mark and its second straight 2A title with a win over Battle Mountain in the championship game, was ecstatic with the third consecutive title.
"Chances are you're never going to experience anything like that again in your lifetime," Girod said. "It was special. The kids just know how to win. They just have something about them. They're never intimidated, they're always positive and they just find a way to win."
And Girod told of how he asked his offense to pick it up a notch late in the season when the starting pitching, which had been so solid throughout the year, started to show signs of being human.
"We had a stretch late in the year where we were down six straight games by five runs or more," he said. "But I go back to kids ... they have a lot of fight. They just found a way to win no matter what the circumstances were and they never got down. The only negative thing we had was when our starting pitcher was struggling and our offense came through, I told my guys 'our pitching's been doing it all year, now it's time for you to pick up your pitchers.' Some of the things our offense did were unthinkable."
The offense responded in a big way, as was evident by the 9.5 runs per game Faith Lutheran averaged in the postseason. And it was a good thing because the Crusaders had a massive target on their back all year long.
"Everybody was out to beat us because we were the team on top," Girod said. "That's the hardest thing to do, to be the number one team and to stay on top because everybody wants to beat you."
Girod also gets credit for his decision-making as he moved No. 1 pitcher Ryan Iodence -- who will take his game to the new Western Nevada Community College in Carson City in the fall -- to the bullpen before the playoffs even began.
"What we decided to do before the conference tournament was to take our ace pitcher Ryan Iodence and put him in the bullpen," Girod said. "By doing that, it allowed Ryan to pitch in more than one game and to be able to close, hopefully as many games as we were going to play.
"You can't get by with just one pitcher. In my opinion you have to have four to five good starters to make it through and you have to plan it out that way. And we did."
So Girod moved senior Marfoglia into the top spot, made freshman Tyler Iodence his No. 2 starter and placed junior Clayton Schellerup in the third spot to save Ryan Iodence for the critical parts of each game if he needed to go to him. And the move worked perfectly and helped Faith Lutheran retain its title as state champion.
One of the biggest things that pleased Girod was the reality that his players, who have a lot of friends that play on the 4A level, showed that they now belong in the upper echelon of baseball talent in Sin City.
"They wanted to prove to the city kids that they grew up with that they could play in 3A," he commented. "Some kidded them that their titles were only at (the) 2A (level)."
The Crusaders, who only lost once in conference play (to Boulder City), also received some postseason accolades as junior Fowler and seniors Farnham and Jeff Brignola -- all of whom batted over .400 -- were named to the first-team all-state squad.
Seniors Ryan Iodence (7-2) and Buccieri, juniors Kasey Gelband and Chase Morgan and freshman Dylan Young all were named to the second-team all-state team.
Helping Faith Lutheran in its three-peat this season were juniors Sean Brown and Nadim Ahmed, sophomores Shane Zachary and James Anger and freshman Michael Foley. Aiding Girod were assistant coaches Chris Martinez and Kevin McCullum.
Despite losing six seniors who were all instrumental in the three-year run, Girod firmly believes his team will be in the thick of it again next year.
"We have four kids that started on varsity returning and should have a solid pitching staff next season," he said. "We probably will be the team to beat again."
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