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Trojans eliminate Panthers
Fairfield beats rival Mt. Pleasant for 4th time, moves on to Substate semis
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield baseball team had beaten Mt. Pleasant all three times leading into Saturday’s Class 3A Substate 6 opener, but that doesn’t mean the Trojans were going to come in overconfident in one of Southeast Iowa’s best rivalries.
“To be honest, it would be nice if we didn’t have to square off with them in the first round,” said Fairfield head coach Josh Allison. “Even though we had got them three times, I still didn’t feel comfortable coming into this game.”
But despite the onus of a fourth win over their arch rival, the Trojans answered the call. In a pitcher’s dual, Fairfield eliminated Mt. Pleasant 3-1, getting a huge rivalry win and moving one step closer in the Substate tournament.
The game was tied 1-1 after a Grayson Lowery RBI single in Mt. Pleasant’s half of the first inning, and a Cason Miller sacrifice fly in Fairfield’s half. The two teams had scored plenty against each other in the regular season, but the contest stayed a 1-1 ballgame until the fourth inning.
At first, it seemed like Mt. Pleasant was poised to take the lead. In the third, the Panthers had two runners on with two outs, and Lowery hit a line drive down the right field line, which bounced into the glove of junior Archer Kreuter. Kreuter delivered a perfect throw to home plate to cut down Mt. Pleasant’s Brayton Hutson, and momentum immediately switched to the home-team’s side.
“I had it planned out in my head,” Kreuter said. “I said, if this is on the ground, he’s going to go.”
Kreuter’s big throw kept the game tied, and Mt. Pleasant wouldn’t score again, as Fairfield’s Dain Burkhart continued to work all day long, giving up just five hits in a complete-game victory.
“It’s no secret I don’t go for strikeouts,” said Burkhart, who fanned just two Panthers over his seven innings. “I heavily rely on my defense. I just let my team get into it.”
On the other end, Mt. Pleasant played some tough defense themselves, but did run into some trouble with ground balls in the bottom of the fourth. Relief pitcher Liam Marshall didn’t give up much hard contact, but the Trojans were able to load the bases with nobody out, and capitalize with two runs.
Dayson Workman had the first RBI of the fourth, and Burkhart had the second, both capitalizing on productive outs to put Fairfield up 3-1.
And that’s all the scoring that would happen for the rest of the day.
As the clouds rolled in, Burkhart stayed strong, stopping the Panthers at every turn, and ending Mt. Pleasant’s season at 17-12. It was the last game in a Panther uniform for 10 Mt. Pleasant seniors.
“They had fun, and still learned the game, and played the game the right way,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Brent Broeker. “Hopefully the younger kids can follow along in that path, and we can keep the winning tradition going.”
As for the Trojans (21-10), they get the chance at top-seeded Pella, (25-6) on Monday night. A win puts Fairfield into the substate championship game.
“All season, we’ve been building and trying to work toward this postseason,” Allison said. “Hopefully we make a nice, deep run.”
