Fairfield, IA- Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield combined for 68 runs through their first three matchups of the season with the lowest score being seven runs by the Panthers in the first game. Offense is flashy but defense is reliable and the Trojans defense shut down the Panthers, advancing to the second round of the Class 3A Substate 6 bracket in a 3-1 victory.
History
Fairfield entered as the favorites having swept the Panthers in their regular season series and collected the Southeast Conference (SEC) title for the second consecutive season after outdueling Burlington 3-2 in the regular season conference winner-takes-all finale.
Still, winning four games against one opponent is never a guarantee, especially when that opponent helped aid your conference championship aspirations by downing the Grayhounds 11-7 in the second game of their doubleheader to set up the tiebreaker. Oh, also, Mt. Pleasant had taken the Trojans to the wire the last time the two clashed at Fairfield Middle School.
“Yeah, I was talking to the coaching staff earlier today, you know, they beat us by 14 the first game, they beat us by 8 the second game, they only beat us by one at their place last time we played them” said Panther head coach Brent Broeker. “So, you know, we’re making progress. We just gotta, you know, get that, get that big hit when we need it.”
The Panthers put up four runs in the top of the 7th inning to lock the score at nine with and produced two outs in the bottom of the frame before a Dayson Workman walk-off solo home run, the first home run of his career, ended the game in Fairfield’s favor, 10-9.
Tensions were high between the SEC foes with Mt. Pleasant watching two games against the Trojans slip through their fingers, while Fairfield was still bitter after the Panthers yanked away a postseason win on a game-winning single by Zerek Venghaus at Mapleleaf, 4-3 the final after nine innings and two days.
Something was going to break on a Friday night.
The Game
Well, Mother Nature had other ideas with the threat of severe weather hovering around first pitch time at 7 pm. Officials opted to move the game up to a 1 pm start time. So, not under the lights, but a Friday matinee in mid-July with temperatures touching 90 degrees certainly sets the tone as well.
The starting pitching matchup pinned Fairfield’s ace Dain Burkhart, who entered with a 2.50 ERA for the season, and Grayson Lowery, the team leader in ERA at 2.14, for Mt. Pleasant against one another. Burkhart had eight runs (two earned) in his win over the Panthers in game two, while Lowery lasted only 0.2 innings in game one against Fairfield with a similar situation to Burkhart.
With a 1:05 pm first pitch time, Payton Walker for Mt. Pleasant led off the game with a single up the middle, but a Brayton Hutson fielder’s choice led to the two flipping running responsibilities with Hutson immediately nabbing second with his sixth steal of the season.
The top of the first inning looked to end without a run getting pushed across after Zach Newton hit a grounder towards Cason Miller at short, but a blooper off his glove prolonged the inning for Grayson Lowery, who expeditiously poked one into left field for an RBI-single. Lowery’s 20th RBI of the season gave the Panthers a 1 to 0 lead to end the first half-frame.
In the bottom of the first inning, Burkhart was plucked by a pitch and Luke Konczal singled, eventually leading to a Miller sacrifice fly to tie the game at one.
A scoreless second inning by both teams was highlighted by Lowery’s first strikeout of the game and some momentum for the Panther bats for the top of third inning. Hutson and J.C. Sitar collected back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second with two outs away.
Again, it was the bat of Lowery that looked to put the Panthers ahead as the righty sliced a line drive into shallow right field in front of Aiden Kreuter. Hutson’s speed on the basepath left no question that he was going to go galloping around third base and head home on the straightaway.
Kreuter fired from right field, a one-hopper to Aiden Westercamp covering the plate. Hutson, sprinting to the bag, was beaten to the bag by the ball and was unable to juke past the tag.
Hutson was out at home, the top of the frame was over, the game still knotted at one.
Another single by Konczal was all the Trojans could muster in the bottom half of the inning as Lowery rang up Westercamp to end the inning.
Spoiler, Mt. Pleasant would register one more hit for the rest of the game, as Burkhart would retire the side in the fourth inning. A pitching change for Mt. Pleasant would bring to the mound senior, Liam Marshall. The Trojans jumped on him early with three consecutive singles to load the bases in the bottom of the fourth inning, no outs.
But, Marshall chipped away, generating a tapper right back to him as he got the force out at home. One out and the game still tied at one. Unfortunately, a Dayson Workman hit-by-pitch pushed the go-ahead run across and a fielder’s choice off the bat of Burkhart would give the Trojans a 3 to 1 lead after four innings.
Mt. Pleasant appeared poised to answer back in the fifth inning after Briar Bender executed the bunt single to lead off the inning. A textbook 6-4-3 double play instantly deflated the inning as Hutson went down on strikes, Burkhart’s first of the game.
Marshall would sit the Trojans down in order in the bottom of the fifth inning, but an error by Chase Countryman on a Lowery groundball did not provide the opportunity needed for Mt. Pleasant as the top of the sixth inning came and went without any runs.
A lead off single by Fairfield’s Ethan Bisgard in the bottom of the sixth frame brought in Zach Newton for the Panthers and he forced Burkhart to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the sixth inning with the game still within reach, 3 to 1 in favor of Fairfield.
With a thunderstorm on the horizon, Burkhart was the one to strike as he sat down Griffin Jones, popped up Marshall, and caused Bender to ground out to Miller. Another 1-2-3 inning for Burkhart as he picked up the complete game win, fanning two. Fairfield moved to 9-4 in games decided by three runs or less, their sixth clutch win in-a-row.
Mt. Pleasant finished the season with their third consecutive winning record of 17-12, but with a feeling that the season was closing too soon. The Panthers will say good-bye to 10 seniors: Landen Seymoure, Payton Walker, Brayton Hutson, Zach Newton, Liam Marshall, Owen Baker, Cooper Coleman, Dane Cook, J.C. Sitar, and Briar Bender.
This collection of seniors helped bring the Maroon and Gold back to their winning ways and two postseason wins over their four seasons. Now, it is up to next year’s team to continue the tradition.
Upcoming
Fairfield will take on either Pella or Keokuk on Monday, July 14th, at 7 pm as the Dutch and Chiefs had their game postponed to Saturday with a 6 pm start time due to the weather.
