Claiming the number one spot for Pleasantville top sports stories of the 2023-2024 school year is the baseball team qualifying for state. 

In a substate finals game on July 16th the Trojans knocked off #2 ranked Des Moines Christian to punch their ticket to the state tournament in Coach Sheldon Card’s last season.  The Trojans, who fell to the Lions in both of regular season matchups this season, used dominant pitching and patience at the plate to win the game in the series that mattered the most. After Braylon Bingham singled to lead off the game, Logan Roff and JJ Phillips drew a hit by pitch and a walk to load the bases in the top of the first inning. Two batters later, Bingham came home to score on a walk issued to Dylan Aldrich, giving Pleasantville the early 1-0 lead. The Trojans extended that advantage an inning later, when Des Moines Christian walked the bases loaded and Tyler Gibson scampered home on a wild pitch to push their lead to 2-0 at the end of the second inning. From there, Pleasantville’s pitching took control of the game.

Starting pitcher Dylan Aldrich gave the Trojans 5.1 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing just three hits and four walks while striking out eight. Allowing a double and a walk with one out in the bottom of the sixth, Aldrich was nearly out of pitches, and head coach Sheldon Card called on freshman Brayden Kennedy to get out of the jam. After allowing a single to load the bases, Kennedy recorded a strikeout and a fly out to keep the Lions off the scoreboard. Kennedy picked up where he left off in the bottom of the seventh, getting the first batter to fly out, before striking out the final two batters to send Pleasantville to State. Card said that prior to and throughout the game, he had a good feeling about his team’s chance to pull off the upset.

“I felt like if we could get to the seventh with that two run lead, we might be okay. Brayden Kennedy’s a bulldog on the mound and Dylan Aldrich wasn’t perfect, but as close to perfect in a game against the number two team in the state as you can be. But, our guys wanted it, you could tell, I mean they kept showing up earlier and earlier every day of the week and you just see it sometimes when people are ready, and they weren’t nervous. So kudos to our guys.”

The Trojans fell to Chariton in the opening round of the Class 2A baseball tournament in Carroll.