Fairfield wins district over Mt. Pleasant

On Friday, Fairfield?s offense struggled for 4 2/3 innings, collecting only one hit. Alex Crile took it upon himself, as a senior leader of this team, to make sure that didn?t happen again.

Mt. Pleasant?s Dalton Shull settled onto the rubber and delivered the first pitch of the game and Crile didn?t miss, launching it over the right field fence and giving Fairfield an early 1-0 lead. The Trojans kept that offensive momentum, winning the ballgame 11-4 and securing the district championship and a chance to play at the state tournament.

?I was looking for a first-pitch fastball and just wanted to get something started early,? Crile said. ?I always feel like if I can get on base, I?ve got some good hitters behind me and we always get a chance to score early. But, that felt great when I hit it.?

?That was a huge confidence boost for us,? Cameron Baumann said. ?That homer made it a lot easier for the rest of us. We?re really comfortable, we communicate better as a team and we?re just a lot closer this year.?

Baumann, Kosta Papazaglou and Austin Simpson each reached base and came in to score in the first inning to put the Trojans up 4-0, setting up an RBI double by Tristan Ledger that was feet away from being the Trojans? second homer of the inning. With a 4-0 lead, Ledger took the mound in the second and began to settle in defensively.

After a 1-2-3 second inning from the senior hurler, Fairfield got another pair of runs in their turn at bat, as Hunter Hoskins walked to start the rally from the No. 9 spot in the order. Crile followed with a line drive to center that was ticketed for extra bases, but a smooth diving catch by Panther outfielder Jordan Magnani put a stop to that plan. Hoskins would wheel around to score on a solid single by Jordan Reid.

?The guys were just relaxed and ready to go today,? said Fairfield head coach Josh Allison. ?Crile starting the game like that let everyone exhale and say, ?We can do this.? We didn?t have to build anything later in the game, and that helped us settle in.?

The Panthers scored three of their four runs in the third inning, drawing back-to-back walks from Ledger and then smacking a pair of singles by Pat Canby and Zac Ebling to make it 1-0. Cooper Huckabone and Colby Potts followed with sacrifice flies to right and left field respectively before Cale Christner struck out swinging to end the inning.

Fairfield?s big inning and the Panthers? collapse came in the fourth inning. Crile?s grounder to third popped off Ebling?s glove and into the air. The Mt. Pleasant junior leaped and grabbed the ball with his bare hand, but wasn?t going to beat the speedy Trojan to first base. Reid followed with a single that moved Crile all the way to third base and the Trojan leadoff man came in to score on the next play. Baumann hit another smash to the right side and Ebling deflected it toward second base, and by the time Shull got to the bag, there was no play on the Trojan center fielder, scoring both Crile and Reid. Austin Simpson followed that up with an RBI double to make it 9-4 Fairfield.

Cade Lisk slapped a ball the opposite way toward left field and Pat Canby made a great sliding stop for the Panthers. The shortstop fired to third to nab Simpson, but the Fairfield freshman?s slide knocked the ball out of Cooper Huckabone?s glove and everyone was safe. Simpson would score on a steal by Lisk, as Levi Parkevich?s throw went awry.

Ledger would settle in for a 1-2-3 fourth and fifth before surrendering a solo homer to Huckabone in the sixth inning, the final hit that the Panthers would get on the day.

?When [Ledger] finds his groove, he?s hard to beat as he?s shown all year,? said Reid. ?He pitches well and we feel really confident when he?s on the mound no matter what.?

Fairfield would score its final tally in the sixth inning and back-to-back looking strikeouts in the top of the seventh would send the Trojans to the substate final.

The Trojans will face Solon in Washington on Wednesday in the substate final, with a trip to Des Moines and the state tournament up for grabs. The Spartans took down Mount Vernon 1-0 behind a first-inning run in their district final and Solon busted Washington out of the bracket in the regional opener.