Mt. Pleasant baseball knocked out in Fort Madison

FORT MADISON — The Mt. Pleasant baseball team couldn’t pull the upset in Fort Madison in Friday night’s Class 3A Substate 4 quarterfinal. The Bloodhounds upended the Panthers 9-2.

Mt. Pleasant put some early pressure on, plating two in the top of the second inning. Dalton Gardner led the frame off by getting hit by a pitch, and a Jack Johnson double to the fence scored the courtesy runner, and at one point, the Panthers had two more runners in scoring positoin.

With two outs, Johnson took home on a botched Bloodhound pick-off attempt, but Fort Madison starter Landes Williams was able to escape with minimal damage and Mt. Pleasant’s lead was at 2-0.

“In those innings, you hope for the big one,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Brent Broeker. “We couldn’t get the bat on the ball when we needed to, to score more than just two.”

It was the third matchup in a row in which Mt. Pleasant had led Fort Madison early, but just like in the previous two, the Bloodhounds came roaring back.

Fort Madison rallied for four runs in the third inning, capitalizing on a Jason Thurman RBI triple with nobody out. In the fourth, the Bloodhounds loaded the bases with nobody out and added four more to stretch the lead to 8-4.

“They do a great job of putting guys on early,” Broeker said. “It seems like they are always putting pressure on our pitchers.”

Fort Madison added one more on an RBI double in the fifth, the last score of the game.

The Bloodhounds (25-8) moved on to play Central Dewitt in Monday night’s substate semifinals. Mt. Pleasant’s season ended at 7-25.

After the game, Coach Broeker big farewell to five seniors: Johnson, Chase Williamson, Sawyer Carrasco, Gardner and Will Edeker, who took the loss for the Panthers on the mound.

“We took a lot of lumps, and it was hard at them,” Broeker said of a senior class that saw two conference championships in its time at Mt. Pleasant. “I’m very proud of them, because they kept the kids together.”