MCDONALD'S SWNEWS4U.COM CO-GAME OF THE WEEK (April 1–8)
SWAL BASEBALL: Fennimore 2, Cuba City 0
By Jason Nihles, The Fennimore Times / Platteville Journal
Starkey, Golden Eagles blank Cubans in opener
CUBA CITY — After last Tuesday’s regular season opener at Platteville was cancelled due to poor weather, the Fennimore baseball team was thrust straight into conference play to open the 2025 season.
Senior Tyson Starkey pitched a complete gem to lead the Golden Eagles to a 2–0 victory over Cuba City Friday afternoon. Starkey struck out nine and allowed just two walks and two hits in the 94-pitch shutout.
"We weren't super excited about having to play Cuba City right out of the gate, especially without having a non-conference game and hardly having any outside practices," said Fennimore head coach Brent Sheckler. "The biggest decision of the day, was who to throw. I was leaning toward starting Casey (Dresen), but since it was the first game of the year, I decided to go with my gut and start my most consistent starter, who is also a senior. And Tyson made me look like a genius. He threw as good a game as I have ever seen from him. He only made a couple mistakes early on, but he was super gutty, especially in the last couple innings."
Fennimore (1–0, 1–0 SWAL), which was tabbed to win this year’s Southwest Wisconsin Activities League title by the league’s coaches, scratched out just enough offense to open the season victorious.
After four scoreless innings — which included seven strikeouts and just two singles — against Cuba City senior ace Tyson Richard, Fennimore finally broke up the scoreless tie in the top of the fifth inning.
After, junior Shawn Jahnke-Fiedler lined out to centerfield to lead off the inning, junior brothers Corey and Casey Dresen delivered back-to-back singles to start the Fennimore rally. Senior Reese Ammon followed that with a RBI ground ball single through the right side of the infield to make it 1–0.
"Reese came up super clutch, with a line drive down the right field line to drive in what turned out to be the game-winning run," said Sheckler. " Hits were hard to come by against Tyson Richard, who I think will be the best pitcher that we will face all year in conference."
Richard limited the damage with a yet another strikeout and a fly ball to center field to end the inning.
Starkey worked around a error and a sac bunt in the bottom of the fifth by getting back-to-back ground balls to Macoy Miles at shortstop and Corey Dresen at first base to end the inning.
Starkey got out of his biggest jam of the game an inning later after Cuba City loaded the bases with a two-out single by Henry Kruser and a walk by Trevor VanNatta. But Starkey got away unscathed when he got Frank Welp to ground out to freshman Gianni Filardo at second base to end the threat.
Fennimore added a needed insurance run in the top of the seventh when Corey Dresen walked, stole second and later scored when Filardo reached on an error by Richard.
"Gianni's wheels came up big there," said Sheckler. "When he smashed one off's Richard's leg, his speed forced Richard to rush his throw and he ended up overthrowing first base, allowing Corey Dresen to score from second. That was a huge sigh of relief to get that insurance run."
Starkey set the Cubans down in order, the last two outs by strikeout, to end the game.
Fennimore traveled to Iowa–Grant Tuesday, where the Eagles (2–0, 2–0 SWAL) notched a narrow 4–2 win, and will now travel to River Ridge Thursday before traveling to Lancaster Monday and Riverdale Tuesday.
Fennimore 2, Cuba City 0
(from Friday, April 4 @ Cuba City)
Fennimore..000 010 1 — 2 6 1
Cuba City....000 000 0 — 0 2 1
Leading hitters — F: Corey Dresen 1x2 (2R), Casey Dresen 1x2, Reese Ammon 1x2 (RBI).
W — Tyson Starkey (1–0, 7IP, 2H, 0R, 9K, 3BB). L — Tyson Richard (7IP, 6H, 2R, 1ER, 10K, 1BB).
