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Washington Evening Journal
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Washington, IA 52353
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SEC baseball teams red-hot
Mt. Pleasant, Fairfield and Washington all start strong
Through one week of area high school baseball, the Southeast Conference is looking mighty strong.
Overall, the six teams in the SEC entered Wednesday an impressive 12-1 record. The three Union area teams in the conference are a combined 7-0.
Sitting at 3-0 after one week is Mt. Pleasant. The Panthers scored 35 runs over their first three games.
The Panthers started things off with a 16-4 win over Van Buren County last Monday. Cooper Coleman had a two hits in the win, and he, J.C. Sitar and Zachary Newton all had a pair of RBIs.
“I thought early on, we were a little anxious,” said Panther head coach Brent Broeker. “After we relaxed a little bit, we started barreling balls up.”
Van Buren County was playing its first game after its state tournament run last summer. Freshman Kinnick Millard helped lead the team, going 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Blaine Benjamin was 3-for-3 with a double and an RBI.
“Not only did we lose a lot of players, but we've got a lot of guys who are running in the state track meet that we coudln't play,” said Van Buren County head coach Shane Begley. “I'm proud of the way the young guys that we put in there handled themselves.”
Mt. Pleasant followed that win with an 11-1 home victory against West Burlington one night later. The Panthers outlasted Cardinal 8-5 on the road on Thursday, thanks in part to three RBIs from Carson Andreasen.
While the Panthers have been piling up the runs, Fairfield has made sure opponents have stayed away from scoring.
The Trojans gave up just three runs in three wins over the course of a four-day stretch.
Fairfield scored a comeback win over Oskaloosa last Tuesday, winning 3-2. Tallon Bates and Aidan Kreuter combined to hold the Indians to just six hits.
Dain Burkhart threw a four-inning two-hitter and drove in four runs himself in a 16-0 win over Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont. Sam Weaton and Nate Konczal held Grinnell to just three hits in a 2-1 victory.
Washington hosted Highland in a game this Tuesday night. The Demons won 8-3 thanks to a strong outing from pitcher Conner Leyden, who struck out seven batters over four innings of work.
