Strong start gives Fulton baseball its fourth straight regional title

AMBOY – Getting out to a strong start mattered for Fulton when it meant the most on Saturday, being on a task to win its fourth straight regional baseball championship.

With six runs in the first inning in the Class 1A Amboy Regional title game, the Steamers built a lead large enough that Forreston couldn’t erase in a 7-4 win at Amboy City Park’s Parker Field.

The string of four consecutive regional titles is the longest in program history for the Steamers (16-13), and the first for Fulton High School sports since the volleyball program won four straight from 2001-04.

“Four in a row is great,” Steamers coach Brent Dykstra said. “These kids worked all year for this. Sometimes we were a little underrated, but they give their hearts out and play 100 percent every game. That’s what does it. Our offense was hot in the first inning and we came out swinging, and from that point our defense and pitching knew it was their job now to hold it.”

Fulton took advantage of three Cardinals errors, had two hits, a walk and a hit by pitch as it batted around in the first. Leadoff hitter Caden Wilkin was beaned and Braedon Meyers reached on an infield error to put runners on the corners for Braeden Brennan, who hit a sharp roller to short that was bobbled to score Wilkin. Jacob Huisenga then singled to drive in Meyers, Dane Van Zuiden walked before Forreston starting pitcher Alec Schoonhoven was relieved by Brendan Greenfield.

With a new Cardinals pitcher, Chase Dykstra’s sacrifice fly brought in Brennan and starting pitcher Dom Kramer’s line drive into the left-center field fence scored Huisenga and Van Zuiden. An errant throw on a ground out try from Jacob Voss’ bat brought Kramer home.

The hot start helped Kramer throughout most of the day on the mound.

“It felt amazing to have been right out on top in that first inning,” Kramer said. “The energy helps a lot. The dugout was loud. The bats were hot. Insurance helps a lot out on the mound, and the guys behind you.”

Other than the first inning, the Cardinals (27-8) retired the Steamers in succession in four of the remaining six innings. Fulton scored once more in the fifth inning on another Cardinals infield error with two on and none out.

Forreston coach Mike McClellan makes it a point to his team that the first three outs matter a lot in any game, he said, but it fell apart at the wrong time.

“You can’t give them six in the first,” McClellan said. “When you do that, it’s an uphill battle. After the first inning, we played just like we always do. You just can’t eliminate that kind of an inning. It would be different if it was just one guy, but we threw three balls away. One of the things we did all year when we got in trouble was to manage it, giving up two or three and being able to score runs all year. If we limit that to two or three instead of six, it’s a different game.”

Kramer pitched the first 4⅔ innings in picking up the win. Greenfield singled in Kendall Erdmann, who reached on a double, for the Cardinals’ first run in the third inning, Daniel Koehl scored on a wild pitch in the fourth inning, and Connor Politsch drove in Erdmann and Darin Greenfield with a two-out single in the fifth that signaled the end of Kramer’s time on the mound.

Meyers relieved Kramer and got himself out of pressure situations in the fifth with the bases loaded, the sixth with runners in scoring position and the seventh also with two men on and retiring the final two batters who represented game-tying runs.

“Obviously I was feeling a little bit nervous, but it’s just a game at the end of the day, so why get nervous?” Meyers said. “I just tried to stay as calm as I can and do my job, and everyone else can do theirs too.”

Erdmann finished with three hits and Politsch had two. No Steamer had a multi-hit game.

Fulton, who finished runner-up in the NUIC West Division, advances to the 1A Lena-Winslow Sectional, where it will play River Ridge/Scales Mound at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Lions Park. The Wildcats beat NUIC West champion East Dubuque 14-7 Saturday at the East Dubuque regional.

“This means a lot to us,” Meyers said. “All of us guys have been playing since we were little, and I think it meant more to us to win [this one] than in the past three years just because of how we all have been together. It’s been real fun.”