Youth and experience lead Newman to their 8th state baseball title

DES MOINES — Senior Josh Fitzgerald socked a two-run homer while 8th-grader Doug Taylor picked up the win on the mound as Newman beat Alburnett 11-1 in six innings in the Class 1A championship game at the state baseball tournament in Des Moines, as you heard on AM-1300 KGLO and kgloam.com, giving the Knights their third-straight championship.

Newman scored two in the second with Kyle Armour’s RBI single and George Schmit knocking in Jack McGuire with a sacrifice fly.

After Alburnett plated their only run in the top of the third, Newman responded in the bottom half of the inning with another RBI single by Armour scoring Schutt

Fitzgerald socked a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth to give the Knights a 5-1 lead after four.

Newman pushed across four more runs in the bottom of the fifth. Schmitt had an RBI single and scored on a wild pitch. After the Knights loaded up the bases, both Fitzgerald and Jack Maznio scored on another wild pitch to make it 9-1 after the fifth.

The Knights finished off the game in the bottom of the sixth with a sacrifice fly from Max Burt scoring Armour, followed by a walk-off hit batsman as Merritt McCardle was hit with the bases loaded.

Taylor picked up the win, facing 21 batters in 5 1/3 innings, striking out one, allowing four hits, two walks and one run. Fitzgerald came in to finish the game, pitching 2/3 of an inning, striking out one.

Armour finished the game with three hits and two RBI.

For the Knights, it’s their third straight championship and 8th overall, winning titles in 1998, 2002, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2017-2019.