Trojans take SEC softball championship

FAIRFIELD - A four-run seventh inning in the first game gave Class 4A's No. 12 Mt. Pleasant's softball team a big conference win, 5-1, and a share of first place in the conference Monday, but the Trojans scored a comeback 3-2 win in Game Two to clip the Panthers and win the Southeast Conference softball championship.

Mt. Pleasant's Sydni Coleman and Fairfield's Allison Rebling went punch-for-punch in the opener, each pitching five scoreless frames before the first run crossed. Makayla Cam scored on a wild pitch after a leadoff double to make it 1-0 Panthers in the top of the sixth, but Fairfield's Coty Engle scored on a little-league home run in the sixth, finding home plate after a double and two Mt. Pleasant errors.

In the seventh, the top of the Panther order came up clutch. Lyndi Vantiger broke the tie with a two-out RBI single, and then with the bases loaded, Trinity Krabill cleared the bags with a deep fly ball to center field that was bobbled by a Trojan outfielder, plating three and sending her to third base.

Coleman took the ball again in Game Two and held Fairfield to just one run over the first five innings. The Panthers scored two early, scoring Cam in the first inning and making it 2-0 in the second after Samantha Broeker tripled to the fence and scored on a Hannah Newman single.

Fairfield scored their first run in the bottom of the fourth, then the Trojans found their bats in the bottom of the sixth. Fairfield loaded the bases with nobody out. Destiny Gridley eventually tied the game on her second RBI of the inning, and Jenna Norris brought the eventual game-winner in on an RBI-infield single.

Mt. Pleasant had the top of their order back up in the seventh, but Engle stayed hot in the circle for Fairfield, pitching a 1-2-3 inning to clinch the win, and the conference title.

'Again, we scored two runs in the first two innings and just kind of sat,” said Mt. Pleasant head coach Troy Mears. 'I don't think we had bad swings or anything like that, but we've just got to keep that killer instinct and score more than two runs, for that reason.”

Mt. Pleasant is now 18-9 overall. They finished SEC play 12-4. The Panthers may still play Fairfield (20-16, 13-3 SEC) one last time, as they'll draw the winner of the Keokuk-Fairfield first-round game in their regional semifinal showdown in Mt. Pleasant July 13.

'I told them, a conference championship would have been cool, would have been real cool,” Mears said. 'But if we get to play them again, there is one game that is more important.”