Fatima baseball wins fourth state championship in program history
OZARK, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Fatima Comets have reached the holy grail for the first time since 2015.
On Thursday afternoon, head coach Tyler VanGerpen and his team shutout Fair Grove, 2-0, in the program's first title game appearance since 2019. With the win, Fatima ended the 2025 campaign with a 20-13 record and some hardware to add to the trophy case.
Through the Comets' entire postseason run, they only gave up five runs in six games.
Comets pitcher Blake Kliethermes threw a gem of a game for a title. The junior pitched 6.2 innings of two-hit baseball, as he fanned seven Fair Grove batters. The game was closed out by his teammate, Bryce Wieberg, who earned the save in the seventh.
Offensively, all it took was a two-run frame in the third inning to get the job done down at Ozark Mountain Sports Complex. With a runner in scoring position, Colten Scheulen grounded into a fielder's choice to get the first run of the game across home plate. Then, in that same inning, Wieberg scored on a throwing error by the second baseman to get his team up by two runs.
Thursday's win over Fair Grove is the first state championship that Fatima has won under the leadership of VanGerpen. The previous three titles had come under former head coaches Scott Kilgore and Dennis Fick.
Fatima is the second Mid-Missouri baseball to come away with a championship in Ozark, as the St. Elizabeth Hornets got it done on Tuesday, as well.
