Tremont puts relentless pressure on Routt, advances to first state title game in program history
- Jonathan Michel
- Jun 12
- 5 min read
CHAMPAIGN — None of Tremont’s baseball players had played at the IHSA State Finals before Friday and there’s always a question mark of how a team will handle playing when pressure is at its highest.
But for the Turks, there was no question as they played in the dominant fashion that they have all year, putting on a relentless show with its bats in a 10-3 win over Jacksonville Routt in the Class 1A State Semifinals at Illinois Field in Champaign.
“It's awesome, it's great to be able to finally get here to this final moment that we've been thinking about since May of last year,” Tremont’s Chase Rhodes said.
The win, which moves the Turks to 37-2 on the season, secures Tremont’s best finish in program history. The Turks finished fourth in Class 1A in their only other state appearance in 2011.
The Turks mingled with over a hundred family members, friends, classmates and even signed autographs for young fans after the game, reveling in their accomplishment but also anticipating one more big challenge on Saturday.
“A lot of emotions are going through my head but we all know that we got one more game and we're going to take care of business tomorrow and then be even happier,” Tremont’s Griffin Meeker said.
Those in attendance didn’t have to wait long for one of the biggest turning points in the game.
Routt kicked off the first inning with a walk, a double down the left field line and a bunt single to load the bases with one out. However, Tremont pitcher and Valparaiso signee Andrew Dawson got out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts.
The pendulum further swung in Tremont’s favor when their first at-bats saw a leadoff single by Griffin Meeker, a double by Justin Muselman and an RBI single by Dawson. Muselman later came across to score on a passed ball and Rhodes drove in courtesy runner Jack McAllister to make it 3-0 through one inning.
““We took one of their better punches of the day, but then we responded with a combination,” Tremont head coach Eddie Betson said. “It was a grind, we had base hits, we had some doubles, we had to do a little bit of safety squeeze, small ball stuff.”
“After that first inning out of the way, everyone kind of was relieved a little bit, and we were able to settle in a little bit,” Rhodes said.
Tremont made contact frequently against Routt hurler Brady Turner and finished with 12 hits. The Turks’ 10 runs were on par with their season average.
“We had to get past a really tough pitcher, Brady Turner, a great pitcher and I think being able to put up hits in a row timely once again was very big,” Rhodes said. “That makes all the difference in the world, whenever you're just able to keep on putting more and more pressure on teams.”
The Rockets found a response with a two-run double by Talon Thompson in the top of the second, but Tremont neutralized it after Josh Papenhause drew a walk with the bases loaded and Meeker scored on an error by Routt shortstop Oliver Smith to make it a 5-2 advantage through two innings.
The Turks continued to score runs by any means possible in the bottom of the fourth. After loading the bases with one out, Hunter Smith executed a squeeze bunt to score a run and Papenhause scored on a passed ball to make it 7-2.
“Once we just keep on having runners on base, it feels like nothing can stop us,” Meeker said.
Routt mustered an RBI single in the top of the fifth to end Dawson’s day, but Meeker came in and threw two and two-thirds scoreless innings of relief with three strikeouts and one walk. Dawson finished with six strikeouts, five walks and six hits allowed.
“My stuff wasn't the best today, but I got to battle through and I knew my offense was going to score runs for me, so a lot of the pressure was lifted off that,” Dawson said.
“Going into this game, we knew that either [Dawson] is going to be really good, or he might be a little bit off, but you know for one thing that he is going to grind his butt off, compete his butt off, and there's just no quit in that kid, even when he doesn't have his best stuff,” Betson said.
The Turks padded their lead in the bottom of the sixth on a sacrifice fly from Papenhause, an RBI single from Rhodes and an RBI double by Jake Williams, who stayed in the game despite being shaken up earlier in the game after getting hit in the arm by a fastball.
Rhodes and Meeker both went 3-4 at the plate while Justin Muselman and Andrew Dawson both collected two hits. Papenhause and Rhodes led Tremont in RBIs with two apiece and Dawson, Muselman and Williams all had doubles.
“In the back of our heads, we're like we don't play for a third and fourth place game so now that we're in the state championship, a lot of the pressure's gone, but we know we can really do it,” Dawson said. “It's just one more game to get that first place trophy.”
Tremont will carry a 24-game win streak into Saturday’s state title game against the winner of Putnam County and Louisville North Clay with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. The Turks will be set to have a fully-rested Rhodes, who carries a team-best 0.55 ERA and 107 strikeouts, on the mound.
“I’m super excited, we got a good set up,” Dawson said. “When we got Chase on the mound there's a good chance of winning.”
There’s plenty of reason to celebrate for Tremont to celebrate, but for one more time, they will put another big win behind them and press the reset button when they wake up in the morning.
“This group has done a really, really good job all year long of just resetting it from the jump,” Betson said. “So tomorrow we haven't done anything, we got to go out and earn it.”
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