Prairie du Chien Baseball opens 2024 season with wild victory at Fennimore
Prairie senior Keagan Dull rounds the bases after blasting a three-run home run to give the Hawks a 3-2 lead. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Abe Amundson delivers a pitch during the second inning of the Hawks non-conference game at Fennimore. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Shortstop Bryce Lenzendorf fires to second base early in PdC's comeback win over Fennimore. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Senior Dawson Eastman takes a lead off of first base. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Courtesy runner Jack MacEachern beats the Fennimore second basemen to the bag. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
Senior Logan Kiesau takes a lead off second while keeping an eye on the Fennimore pitcher. (Derick Kelly/Courier Press)
By Derick Kelly
The Prairie du Chien Blackhawks baseball team began their 2024 schedule with a trip to a familiar non-conference opponent in Fennimore on Thursday, March 28. The game, like most games in the rivalry, was a back-and-forth battle between two programs looking to contend for their respective conference championships.
After a scoreless first inning, Fennimore got on the scoreboard first in the bottom of the second inning when they scored two runs on back-to-back doubles and a two-out RBI single.
Fennimore’s 2-0 lead would be short-lived as the Hawks would immediately respond in the top of the third inning with four runs of their own, including a three-run home run by Keagan Dull and a bases-loaded walk by starting pitcher Abe Amundson.
Both teams were not able to push anymore runs across until the bottom of the fourth inning when Fennimore once again used back-to-back doubles and a two-out RBI single to tie the game up at 4-4. Prairie came firing back in the top of the fifth inning when back-to-back two out RBI singles by Hunter Jones and Dull pushed three more Hawk runs across the plate to make the score 7-4 in favor of Prairie du Chien.
Logan Kiesau used a strong performance on the mound in relief of Amundson to keep Fennimore from pushing anymore runs across the rest of the game as the Hawks earned a 7-4 win to start the season 1-0, while Fennimore dropped to 0-1.
Kiesau earned the win for the Hawks in 5 innings of relief work. He scattered six hits while allowing just two earned runs. He struck out nine batters while walking non. Amundson struck out four and walked two in two innings on the mound while allowing two earned runs on three hits.
Dull had the hot stick for the Prairie offense as he went 2-for-4 at the plate with a home run and 4 RBIs. Jones, Kiesau, Dawson Eastman, and Aydan Ihde each added a base hit for PdC. Jones (2 RBIs) and Amundson (1 RBI) also drove in runs while Jones, Dull, Eastman, Amundson, Nick McCullick, Drake Ingham and Bryce Lenzendorf each scored a run during the game.
Prairie du Chien Baseball travels to Platteville for an early season conference showdown on Thursday, April 4. Game time is slated for 5:00 p.m.
