Dixon, after 11 straight losses to end the regular season, beats Sterling to win regional title

FREEPORT - Dixon was sick and tired of losing.

After 11 straight defeats to close the regular season, the Dukes got back in the win column when it mattered most.

Dixon defeated Sterling 10-2 on Saturday to win the Class 3A Freeport Regional title as Eli Kirchhoff pitched 6⅔ innings to earn the win.

With the win, the Dukes avenged a 3-2 setback to Sterling on May 23. Dixon also paid back Sycamore in the regional semifinals after losing a week before.

Kirchhoff allowed just four hits and one earned run on Saturday, walking four and striking out three. He was also one of six Dukes with an RBI. The junior came through on the mound after he entered the game with an earned run average over six.

“We were focused all week at practice,” he said. “We knew it was going to be difficult. We wanted the challenge. Sterling beat us at home, so did Sycamore, and we wanted to beat them for the regional.”

Kirchhoff said the defense behind him had his back the whole game.

“[They] made some clutch plays when I was walking some runners,” he said. “James Leslie, he graduated last year, I asked him for some advice because I knew he had been in this game before. He gave me some advice that really helped me through this game.”

The fifth-seeded Dukes took control with two runs in the first inning and four in the second against the seventh-seeded Golden Warriors. Dixon advanced to face St. Francis in a 2 p.m. Wednesday sectional semifinal at Kaneland.

On Saturday, junior Brady Lawrence hit a two-run double to put Dixon up 4-0. Lawrence was playing in just his sixth game after missing most of the season as he recovered from a torn ACL.

“Playoff baseball is a different atmosphere. It changes everyone,” he said. “It’s a new season in the playoffs, so we just stopped thinking. This week of practice was hard.

“We were all tired of losing. ... We heard we had Sterling in the championship, and we were determined to win this game. I think that gave us that extra push to beat our rivals for that championship.”

Lawrence finished with two doubles as the designated hitter. Jagger Kemp led the Dukes with three hits and three RBIs. Dixon out-hit Sterling 9-4 and took advantage of multiple errors by the Warriors.

During Dixon’s losing streak, five games were decided by two or fewer runs.

“After a while, it gets tiring,” Kemp said of the losing streak. “We just stick to it, keep grinding, show up every day and just work hard. Coach got us working hard. That’s what we do.”

Dixon fell 4-3 to Sycamore in last year’s regional final.

“It feels great. Especially for our coach, [Jason] Burgess,” Kemp said. “He wants this. He pushes us every day, ‘keep working, keep working’. We fell short last year but we’re here to get it done.”

Kemp got the final out via strikeout after Sterling pushed a run across.

Dixon scored six runs (four earned) against Sterling (15-21) starting pitcher Bryce Hartman, who got five outs before Mason Hubard got Sterling out of the second inning. Cale Nettleton retired six straight Dukes before Dixon extended its lead with a run in the fifth and three in the sixth as Sterling defensive miscues piled up.

“As I tell my kids, the opponent isn’t the team in the uniform, the opponent is the game of baseball,” Sterling coach Darwin Nettleton said. “This was probably our worst game that we played in four weeks.”

Nettleton was still proud of the team for winning two more games than last year.

“I loved their fight,” he said. “I love their effort, love their energy. Had to fight adversity all year.”

Burgess said his Dukes were “resilient” to earn the regional title. It was their first since 2022.

“We struggled late in the year,” he said. “And these last two games they brought it together, played well together. Pitching on the mound, they competed. Every pitch, every out.”

Offensively, Dixon scored its most runs since a 14-6 win over Rock Falls on May 1.

“The perseverance and the way these guys have stuck together as a group,” Burgess said. “I just love working with kids that have that ‘go get it’ mentality. Just very proud that they can get to this point.”

The win over Sterling was Dixon’s first since a 1-0 win in 2023.

In a regional final matchup with some extra juice to it, Dixon has turned things around in the ‘second season’.

“That’s just Dixon baseball,” Kirchhoff said. “We’re a family here and we always knew it. We knew we were going to be great when we all stepped onto the same field.”

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Gage Helfrich is tagged at home by Sterling's Mason Hubbard. Dixon defeated Sterling 10-2 to win the Freeport regional in Freeport on May 31st, 2025. (Brian Hurley)