Prep baseball: Grinnell holds off late Trojan rally in season opener

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield players knew they would be part of opening night for the 2026 Iowa High School baseball season. The Trojans just didn't realize they'd be starting so early. With rain in the forecast for Monday night, Fairfield and Grinnell moved up the start of their season-opening contest in Jefferson County by two hours playing the varsity contest ahead of the scheduled junior varsity game.

The Trojans took a little longer adjusting to the early start to the season, falling short despite scoring three runs in the final two innings as the Tigers held on late for a 5-3 road win as Trenton Huls forced Chase Countryman to ground out to second after a pair of two-out hits brought the tying run to the plate. "We just didn't come into this game with enough energy," Fairfield senior Aiden Westercamp said. "We got our energy going in the last inning and I think that helped out a lot to get the tying run.

There are a few minor things we need to work on, but I feel like there are a lot of good things we can take away from battling a really good team. " Even while trying to get adjusted to the earlier start time, the Trojans came within a hit of taking the early lead on Grinnell stranding three base runners in the first two innings. Huls, before recording the save on the mound, drove in the first run of the season for the Tigers (1-0) with a two-out RBI infield single to drive in Brooks Vosburg ahead of a wild pitch that scored Josh Ringler, giving Grinnell a 2-0 third-inning lead.

"We've got to have the energy from the very first inning. We had some new guys in new positions and had to adjust on the fly," Fairfield head baseball coach Josh Allison said. "We just needed that one little thing to turn things our way.