Marion begins well, but falters late in district final loss

SOLON - The start was great, couldn't have been scripted much better had Coach Steve Fish penned it himself.

The Marion Indians were excited, stealing a run in the first inning and getting a couple more in the second for a 3-0 lead on Dubuque Wahlert. One of those second-inning runs came on a long home run by sophomore Mitch Wiese, his second and his team's second this season.

But then, all of a sudden, well, Marion fell apart. Six defensive errors, a clutch hit or two by the opponent and Wahlert turned around that early deficit, scoring the final eight runs for an 8-3 Class 3A district final win.

The Golden Eagles (20-19) don't have the flashiest record around, but most of their games have been against the predominantly 4A Mississippi Valley Conference. Wahlert plays DeWitt Central (28-13) in a substate final Wednesday night at DeWitt, with a trip to the state baseball tournament on the line.

'We've been swinging it well, and we felt confident that we would be able to score some runs,” said Wahlert co-coach Kory Tuescher. 'It was just a matter of trying to limit their damage. That's why we went with Austin Savary in the third.”

The sophomore southpaw is Wahlert's ace and this was an ace relief performance. Savary relieved older brother Alex Savery on the mound and threw five shutout innings, retiring the final 11 Marion batters.

'He was very good at hitting his spots,” said Marion's John Carstenson. 'He pitched the right guys inside. He was a crafty pitcher, not overpowering. But when a guy hits his spots like that, it's hard to hit the ball hard and on the ground.”

Wahlert got an earned run in the second against Marion starting pitcher Brady Donohue and three unearned ones in the third to take the lead for good.

You had a fielding error on first baseman Carstenson leading off, a wild pickoff throw by Donohue, and a poor throw home on a grounder to third baseman Gage Kray. Two more untimely errors in the fifth led to three more Wahlert runs.

'We've played good when we get ahead,” Carstenson said. 'Unfortunately, just a couple of things fell apart, and we just ended up where we were. They frankly just outhit us and made a lot of plays. They seemed to find a lot of gaps, and some days there's nothing you can do about that.”

'With the young team that we have, we have played like this on some nights. We struggled a little with some walks, and we made some errors, and that's not a good combination. Especially a Wahlert team that's scrappy and they have disciplined hitters who could hit the ball. I knew we had to play good defense, and that didn't happen.”

Five sophomores and three juniors played Monday, so bright days are certainly ahead for Marion.

'We've got some good young kids. And we've got some younger kids down below them that should mesh well,” Marion coach Steve Fish said. 'Like I told them ‘Make sure you learn.' The seniors told them to make sure not to put pressure on themselves. We'll be pretty good. We'll be all right.”

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