Solon outlasts Columbus, 12-9; into 2A title game (VIDEO)

DES MOINES - You're not going to outslug the Solon Spartans.You can try if you want. Waterloo Columbus did last night in a Class 3A state baseball tournament semifinal at Principal Park.But when you're facing a prolific offensive team that averages over 10 runs a game and is close to setting a national record, going toe to toe - or bat to bat - just isn't going to work.“They can hit the ball,” Columbus Coach Terry Goerdt said after Solon's 12-9 win. “They're a really, really good hitting team. Baseball is all about getting baserunners on and getting timely hits. Solon just did a little better job of that tonight than we did.”The top-ranked, top-seeded Spartans (40-2) finally cleared that semifinal hurdle after two previous years of losing in that round. This was a collective Solon sigh of relief considering that and that Columbus (23-16) led this one by a 7-3 margin in the second inning.Solon won a Wamac Conference regular-season double-header with the Sailors, 9-2 and 11-3.A seven spot in the third put the Spartans up for good in a sometimes laborious affair that featured 21 runs, 26 hits (13 for each team), seven walks, three hit batters and five errors.“We didn't think it would be that big of a slugfest,” said Derrick Loveless, whose two-out bases-loaded triple in the third gave his team a 9-7 edge. “We were just coming out to put the ball in play. They'd eventually do that against our pitchers, we knew that. We just had to make some plays and put a couple of goose eggs up on the scoreboard.”“I'm very impressed,” said Solon Coach Keith McSweeney. “You don't know how they are going to respond when you're down here. You're hoping that everything you talk about during the regular season, they're going to put that to use. But it isn't until you get under the bright lights here of Principal Park that you find out what you're made of.”A large part of what Solon is made of is doubles. It had four in this game to set a state record with 129 this season, two shy of the national record set in 2008 by Las Vegas Bishop Gorman.The Spartans have one more game to surpass Bishop Gorman, the 2A championship game Saturday at 2 p.m. against Davis County (34-1)/Carroll Kuemper (26-9).“This game showed what we have, I guess, to be able to come back,” said Marshall Koehn, whose has a state-record 30 two-baggers this season, two shy of the national record. “I mean, we were getting a little worried there after they got ahead 7-3. But we just knew that we had to keep putting the ball in play. We had guys lining it out, hitting line drives and finding gaps. That was pretty big. I think we feel if we can play good enough defense, that we're going to do it with the bats and we'll be all right.”Ryan Butler (9-0) threw 4 2/3 innings of relief to get the win. He allowed one earned run. Ace Brandon Shulista pitched a scoreless seventh for the save.Here's a short video interview with Koehn:

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