Marion strikes early and often to officially end Solon's championship run

 SOLON - Quite frankly, it was probably going to happen soon anyway. The Marion Indians just officially assured it last night.Solon's run of state baseball championships has come to an end. At least this run.Marion scored nine times in the first three innings to topple the Spartans, 9-5, in a Class 3A district final. Solon won the Class 2A state title in 2010 and the 3A championship last season.“This was a different group,” said Solon Coach Keith McSweeney. “They have to win their battles. They weren't going to win just by putting their jerseys on.”Just about every key player responsible for the championship run graduated, including outfielder Derrick Loveless, who is playing pro ball in the Toronto Blue Jays minor-league system. So it's a credit to McSweeney and company that they were able to finish 16-25, playing their best baseball late in the season.And it's a credit to Marion it is in position for a second straight state tournament appearance. The Indians (29-12) play sixth-ranked Benton Community (34-7) in a substate final Wednesday night at 7 at Vinton.In a small way, this was sweet revenge, considering Solon beat Marion in last season's 3A semifinals. Coach Steve Fish claimed a very small way.“I don't know if that really means anything to us,” said Marion Coach Steve Fish. “Keith's got a quality program ... No, we did not come in here with any vendetta against Solon. It's just ironic that we ended up playing against them (tonight). On the way to batting practice today, I did kind of think ‘I don't want Solon ending my season again.' But that was it.”Marion slapped the ball all around the park early in this one, scoring twice in the first inning, five times in the second and twice more in the third. The Indians finished had 12 hits in that span: 11 singles and a Cale Cannoy double.Solon scored three times in the bottom of the first to take a 3-2 lead, but Marion stormed right back to regain control.“Especially coming off our last game (against Clear Creek Amana) when we scored two runs the whole game, this was big,” said first baseman Trev Biery, who went 3-for-4 with two RBIs. “What'd be put up, 13 hits? Then to get on them early (was important). They matched us in the first, but to come back in the second inning was huge.”Lefty pitcher Levi Lochner settled down after a rough start and pitched two batters into the sixth before Cannoy relieved him and finished it. Lochner allowed only two earned runs.Solon had the bases loaded with none out in the sixth, but Cannoy got Austin Holub to line into a double play to second to essentially stem the tide. The Spartans reloaded the bases with two outs, but Todd Oberthien grounded into a force play to shortstop.“I was a little nervous the first couple of innings, yeah,” Lochner admitted. “Just nerves kicking in. After about the second inning, I started feeling a little better. My teammates all picked me up. I just had to throw strikes because I knew they had my back.”

AT SOLON

Marion 252 000 0 - 9 13 1

Solon 310 001 0 - 5 7 3 Levi Lochner, Cale Cannoy (6) and Addison Johnson. Tim Lance, Mitch Silberstein (2), Todd Oberthien (5) and Conner Fitzpatrick. WP-Lochner (6-2). LP-Lance (2-6) Sv-Cannoy (3).

Highlights: Trev Biery went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Sean McGarvey 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs for Marion. The Indians recorded 13 hits, at least one from eight of the nine hitters in the order. The only hitless player (Logan Fuller) had a successful suicide-squeeze bunt to score a run. Colton Dall went 4-for-4 for Solon.