Van Meter completes perfect 39-0 season with a fourth consecutive Class 2A state baseball championship

CARROLL — On Friday afternoon, the Bulldogs captured not just one spot in the state record books, but two.

Van Meter beat Estherville Lincoln Central, 10-0 in five innings, to win its fourth straight Class 2A state baseball championship here at Merchants Park. The Bulldogs finish the year undefeated at 39-0, while ELC bows out at 33-3.

In doing so, Van Meter becomes just the fourth baseball team in state history to win four consecutive state baseball titles. The others: Norway (1981-84), Lansing Kee (1989-92) and West Des Moines Valley (2003-06).

Even more, the Bulldogs are just the 12th baseball team in state history to complete an undefeated summer season with a state championship. The last team to do it was Twin Cedars, who went 36-0 to win the Class 1A state title in 2014.

"Unbelievable," Van Meter coach Eben Baumhover said afterward while cooling off after a post-game Gatorade bath from his players. "It's a heck of a senior group. We're going to miss them a lot, but this whole team, everybody bought in and never quit."

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Van Meter ends the year not just with a perfect record, but on a winning streak that has now reached 56 straight games dating back to the 2021 baseball season. The outgoing senior class has produced a staggering 127-12 overall record over the last four years.

And in Friday's championship triumph over Estherville Lincoln Central, the Bulldogs used the same script that's worked for them in most every big game this summer: aggressive offense, and a heavy dose of Ganon Archer on the mound.

Van Meter cranked out 10 runs on 12 hits to beat ELC via the run-rule in just five innings. The Bulldogs scored three runs in the first, three more in the fourth, then walked off with a four-run fifth inning.

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In the first, Archer smacked a two-run double in the first inning, then scored when Ike Speltz singled him home to make it 3-0. With two outs in the fourth, Jack Petit singled home Dalten Van Pelt. Carter Durflinger singled to right to put runners on the corners. Up came Iowa recruit Reese Moore, whose two-run triple to right made it 6-0, Van Meter.

In the fifth, Van Meter loaded the bases with no outs after Speltz, Ben Gilliland and Austin Baumhover began the frame with three-straight singles. Van Pelt blasted a triple to right to make it 9-0. Van Pelt then scored the walk-off run when Casey Trudo hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to center.

"We can hang with anybody in the state," Petit said afterward. "I think we proved it (Friday) — 10-running a team, that says a lot about our team. We're solid up and down the lineup and we really showed it."

While the Van Meter offense went to work, Archer put the clamps on an Estherville Lincoln Central team that had won 24 games in a row to reach Friday's title game. ELC downed Interstate 35, 5-1, in Tuesday's quarterfinal, then beat Mid-Prairie, 7-4, in Thursday's semifinal. ELC was seeking their first state baseball title.

Archer would not allow them to even sniff the golden state championship trophy. He struck out the first seven batters he faced and ended with nine over five complete innings. He allowed just one hit and two walks. No Estherville Lincoln Central baserunner advanced past first base, as he successfully completed two pick-off attempts in the fourth inning.

"The four years that I've been on this varsity team, we've won," Archer said. "It'll take a few days until it actually hits me. We just had a 39-0 season and won the state title for the fourth time in a row. It's absolutely incredible."

The end result was another dominating Van Meter win — one that happened to come with two spots in the state record books.

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Van Meter baseball goes 39-0, wins 4th straight Class 2A state title