Prep Baseball: SEC Conference Outlook with Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield Battling for the Crown

Mount Pleasant, IA- The Southeast Conference baseball season is rapidly wrapping up and the race to the top of the standings is heating up, so it seems to be a perfect time to investigate the matchups tomorrow, June 20th, and how the standings will be affected.

At the top of the standings, Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield will have their rubber match in Mt. Pleasant after the two split their Monday night doubleheader, 9-3 in favor of the Trojans and 12-7 for the Panthers.

Mt. Pleasant started their conference run with sweeps of Washington and Keokuk, while Fort Madison took a game from Fairfield, but the Trojans responded with sweep of Burlington. Washington and Burlington would defeat Fairfield and Mt. Pleasant, respectively, to keep the standings consistent.

The series between Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield has been consistently competitive as the record in the last ten matchups sits at 5-5, including five one-run finishes. As it stands, Mt. Pleasant is 8-2 in the conference with a +26-run differential, while Fairfield is 7-3 at +28.

KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 7:15 pm and first pitch at 7:30 pm.

Players to Watch: Dain Burkhart and Aiden Kreuter (Fairfield), Payton Hagans and Carson Andreasen (Mt. Pleasant)

After being swept by Fairfield, Burlington has responded by going 3-1 in their last four conference showdowns, including narrow wins over Fort Madison last Monday 8-7 in game one and 7-4 in game two. Logan Messer had four RBIs between the two wins.

Since a 4-3 conference win over Washington, Fort Madison has dropped their last seven games, allowing 75 runs in that stretch and scoring just 14.

Despite the recent success or lack thereof, both teams are locked at 5-5 records in the conference with the Bloodhounds holding a run advantage in run differential (+2 versus +1). Burlington will look to make it seven consecutive wins against Fort Madison.

Players to Watch: Luke Hellige and Hunter Cresswell (Fort Madison), Noah Krieger and Gabe Robinson (Burlington)

The last matchup will be Washington’s attempt to escape the conference cellar for the first time since the 2021 season. The Demons helped themselves out by upsetting Fairfield 5-4 on June 10th and defeating Keokuk 15-11.

Keokuk has been able to knock off wins against the Grayhounds and Bloodhounds before winning game one of the doubleheader 7-2. Heading into the matchup Keokuk is 3-7 with a -22-run differential and Washington is 2-8 with a -35-run differential.

From June 26th of 2017 to June 13th of 2022, Washington won 17 games in a row over Keokuk. Since then, Keokuk has gone 6-2, averaging 8.5 runs per game.

Players to Watch: Caleb Zieglowsky and Luke Beenblossom (Washington), Brenton Hoard and Blake Chase (Keokuk)