‘Unreal’: Tremont gobbles up Putnam County to win first state title in program history
- Jonathan Michel
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
CHAMPAIGN — The Tremont Turkey Festival is getting a first-time visitor.
On the biggest weekend of the year in Tremont, a Class 1A state championship trophy is coming home and will be the focal point of celebration.
The Turks jumped on Putnam County early, were unfazed by an hour-long lightning delay and shut the door with emphasis in a 10-0 run-rule victory in the Class 1A baseball state championship game at Illinois Field in Champaign.
“I’ll forever have an ingrained picture of everyone's gloves in the air as I'm running into the mound,” Tremont's Hunter Smith said. “It's just amazing getting that last out in a run-rule in the state championship and to do it with all the guys, it's just a blast.”
“I didn't know what it would be like, but it's a surreal feeling,” Tremont head coach Eddie Betson said. “The Turkey Fest is something that comes around every year, but us playing in this type of baseball game doesn't happen too often.”
Suspense was at a minimum before Tremont got the final out. After Griffin Meeker got the game-ending strikeout, the Turks launched their gloves in the air and raced in for a dogpile full of smiles between the pitcher’s mound and the first base line.
“There was nothing stopping me on that mound,” Meeker said. “Like I said yesterday, there's no way they can stop us and we did the job today and we're state champs.”
The state title is the first in program history for the Turks, who finished fourth in Class 1A in 2011. Tremont’s 1991 boys cross country team is the only other Turks team to have won a state title before.
“There's been a lot of good classes to come through,” Tremont starting pitcher Chase Rhodes said. “And we were the first ones to pull this thing off, which is amazing.”
Meeker has had a penchant for establishing his presence early in games as the Turks' leadoff hitter and did so on Saturday, hitting the second Putnam County pitch of the day to deep center for a leadoff triple.
There was more from where that came from; plenty more, in fact.
Tremont attacked the Panthers with hard-hit balls all day as first baseman Justin Muselman reached second on a pop fly that fell in between Putnam County’s shortstop and second baseman, scoring Meeker. Third baseman Andrew Dawson then laced a double to left to make it 2-0 before center fielder Josh Papenhause grounded into a rare 5-3-5 double play.
But the Turks scratched another run across in the first as Rhodes doubled to left and came across to score on an RBI single the left fielder Smith.
“That's been my job all year: set the tone from the start of the game,” Meeker said. “I did exactly that. Chase did his job in the top of first, putting up a zero.”
The first inning appetizer turned into a second inning entree for the Turks after catcher Jake Williams and designated player Jordyn Balsimo drew leadoff walks and second baseman Jack Oyer brought both of them in with a two-run double to left center.
At 1:39 p.m., midway through the bottom of the second, the game was paused for lightning within a 20-mile radius of the stadium. However, Tremont made the most of the break by playing two-ball, stretching and keeping the momentum level high.
“[We were] enjoying time with coach and kind of soaking in these last couple of minutes on the baseball field as high school athletes, and it was awesome…very fun,” Rhodes said.
The stoppage also gave Turks catcher Jake Williams a chance to connect with his older brother Blaine, who was a star catcher for the Turks before graduating in 2024 and joining the U.S. Army.
The older Williams had originally committed to play college baseball at Illinois before deciding to go into the military. But the state championship allowed the younger Williams to make a lifelong memory on the field that his brother would have played on.
“On the delay, I texted him like ‘Dude, this facility is insane,’” Williams said. “He's like ‘Yeah, dude, I kind of miss it.’”
“I just always went to his games as I was younger, and I kind of just sculpted my game around him, everything about it.”
Fifty-seven minutes after leaving the field, the Turks picked up right where they left off as Papenhause hit an RBI single with the bases loaded, Rhodes hit a sacrifice fly and Smith collected his second RBI single to make it 8-0 after two innings.
“After those first [few] runs at the beginning of the game, we figured all the pitchers got to do is throw strikes at this point and we're going to be taking the trophy home,” Rhodes said.
Rhodes didn’t return to the mound after the delay, finishing with three strikeouts plus one walk and one hit allowed. But it allowed Smith, who threw a gem in Monday’s super-sectional game, to get two innings on the mound with two strikeouts.
“Chase Rhodes came out and just absolutely shut the door, he's been unbelievable this season,” Smith said. “Our bats have been hot this entire tournament and just coming out here, we absolutely displayed our depth of pitching today.”
“It was a dream scenario,” Betson said. “We've talked about this all year long but for it to come to fruition and be able to get multiple guys on the mound, I couldn't have asked for a better game for me and my whole entire team.”
A sacrifice fly from Muselman and a wild pitch in the third inning plated the two more runs the Turks needed to reach run-rule territory.
Tremont was the first team to induce the run-rule in an IHSA state title game since Freeburg beat Elmhurst Timothy Christian in the 2021 Class 2A state title game. The last team to win a Class 1A state title in run-rule fashion was Goreville in 2016.
“We've played with each other for I don't know, even know how long, it's been forever,” Smith said. “To have this one last game and cap it all off on our season and end on a huge win is just absolutely unbelievable.”
Meeker, a star on the hardwood for Tremont who led the Turks to a Class 1A super-sectional appearance, stepped on to the mound with a swagger to his demeanor. Not wanting to delay the celebration any longer, he struck out the side on 10 pitches to slam the door shut.
“Coming in as a freshman, I told Andrew [Dawson] I want to be a state champ and we got that done today,” Meeker said. “Our chemistry has been so high with my senior boys and there’s nothing that can beat it.”
The senior class — which features Meeker, Dawson, Muselman, Rhodes, Smith, Balsimo, Miller Reynolds and Zac Davis, will go down as one of the best to do it in a Turks uniform. Through four years, they led Tremont to two out of its three winningest seasons in program history.
Saturday was a realization of a goal that its seniors set last spring after suffering an upset loss in their first-round playoff game.
“After a disappointing end to our season last year, we knew we're going to be good and we knew we wanted to come to state,” Papenhause said. “And just to win, it's unreal.”
Tremont finished with nine hits to Putnam County’s two. Tremont also finished its year with 38 wins and two losses, which also set a new program record for wins in a season.
Their final one came in front of a crowd of over 500 Tremont fans in attendance, many of whom planned to make a triumphant return to the town’s Turkey Festival on Saturday evening. The Turks plan to walk in the festival parade on Sunday as well.
“We're going to be in the parade tomorrow probably,” Rhodes said.
“And we're going to be holding that thing up pretty happy and proud of ourselves that we were the first ones to pull this thing off.”
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