‘Band of brothers’

FAIRFIELD - Mt. Pleasant baseball wasn't supposed to compete for the Southeast Conference title this year. Fairfield and Washington were bringing back loads of talent from 2018, and the Panthers were filling their lineup with fresh faces straight from the junior varsity squad. But after splitting games in Fairfield on Monday night, the Panthers are co-SEC champions.

The Panthers had to bounce right back after getting walked off on a two-run single by Kosta Papazoglou in game one. That gave Fairfield a 3-2 victory and at least half of the conference crown. Mt. Pleasant bounced back with a thrilling 6-5 win in game two to earn their piece of the pie.

'They're fighters,” head coach Brent Broeker said after game two. 'The three seniors kind of pulled them all together. They hang out together. They do things together. You can tell they're just a solid group. My assistant coach calls them the band of brothers, and they play like it.”

Mt. Pleasant held a 2-1 lead after four innings, grabbing the advantage on a bases-loaded, two-run single by Corbin Broeker. That lead held until the bottom of the seventh when disaster struck.

Fairfield's Drew Martin led off the seventh with a double to left-center field. Carter Ferrel singled on a bunt attempt, and after a wild pitch put two in scoring position, Papazoglou sent the game-winning line drive to left.

Nik Coble pitched six strong innings in the loss, giving up just three earned runs on five hits and four walks, while striking out six. He was pulled for Bryce Anderson after the first two Trojans got on in the seventh.

Chase Lamm was 2-3 in the loss. Clayton Lowery went 2-4. Chase Williamson was 1-1, and Broeker went 1-4 with two RBIs.

After a scoreless first inning of game two, the Panther offense punched back hard in the second inning. Mt. Pleasant turned a two out and nobody on situation into five runs, which included another two-run single by Broeker and an RBI single by Coble. Starter Jaxon Hoyle went one-two-three in the second, giving Mt. Pleasant a 5-0 lead after two frames.

'We can trust Jaxon on the mound. He's a great pitcher,” said Anderson, one of the team's three seniors. 'Our mindset was there. We knew that in order to get the split and be conference champs, we needed to get it done.”

Hoyle didn't give up a hit in any of the first five innings. The only Fairfield runner before the sixth was Papazoglou, who reached on a walk in the fourth. But when the sixth inning rolled around, the Trojans found a chink in Mt. Pleasant's armor. Fairfield batted through the lineup, scoring five runs and tying the game on an RBI single by Kaden Jones. In the blink of an eye, it was 5-5 with just one inning remaining.

Williamson stepped to the plate in the top of the seventh and hustled out an infield single to lead off the seventh. Broeker bunted him over. Coble blooped a double to left, and an intentional walk to Lowery loaded the bases for Hoyle. Hoyle scored Williamson on an RBI groundout and the Panthers had the lead again, at 6-5.

The Panther junior stepped back on the mound for the bottom of the seventh and delivered yet another 1-2-3 inning, his fifth perfect frame in seven tries. A Farrel fly out to Trace White, a converted infielder playing right field, ended the game and Mt. Pleasant clinched a seemingly unlikely share of the SEC crown. 'This team is one of my favorite teams that I've ever been on,” said White, another senior. 'Getting to play with all the younger players, and they're all stepping up and playing positions they don't normally play. I'm a senior and I'm playing a position that I don't normally play. It's always fun to see us work together to achieve one goal, and that's win.”

Broeker was 1-2 with two RBis in the win. Coble went 2-4 with an RBI. Williamson was 2-3 and Anderson knocked in one. Hoyle's five earned runs came on four this and walk out, and he struck out four Trojans.

The win moved the Panthers to 17-6 overall. They ended their SEC schedule at 12-4, and along with conference supremacy, Mt. Pleasant is also turning heads statewide. The Panthers are now in the 'others” portion of the Iowa Coaches Baseball Association top 10 rankings, just two spots behind the 10th-ranked Trojans. Quite a feather in the hat of the three Panther seniors, but they're happy to share the glory.

'I remember playing varsity when I was a freshman, and it was a big deal getting to play when I was that young,” says Lamm, the longest standing Panther senior on the varsity squad. 'Seeing these younger guys fill in, I think they did a better job than I ever did when I was that young. That really says a lot about them. They're a great group of kids, and they play ball well, and their mindsets are exactly where they need to be.”

Mt. Pleasant will be back at home tonight (Tuesday) for a nonconference game against Louisa-Muscatine.