Solon bats alive and well (as usual) in substate win

SOLON - You look at their batting averages and immediately think conspiracy theory. They've got to be a product of that sometimes “unique” high school scoring.

Then you watch the Solon Spartans hit and your mind changes. Maybe those gaudy numbers really are legit.

It was line drive after line drive last night in a Class 2A substate final. And that was just the first inning.

Solon scored 10 times in that frame and went on to a 15-8 win over Cascade. The top-ranked Spartans (38-2) are the top seed next week at the state tournament, drawing Interstate 35 (19-6) in a 2 p.m. Monday first-rounder at Principal Park in Des Moines.

Hey, I-35 pitchers. Good luck because you'll need it against this offense.

“I think a lot of it is our kids are strong,” said Solon Coach Keith McSweeney. “Our kids, some of them have pro bodies. They work hard at it. Our strength program is the backbone of our athletic department. The other thing is we just have some good hitters.”

Boy howdy there. Solon went into this game with an unbelievable .410 team batting average. It averages 10 runs a game.

Two regulars (Marshall Koehn and Derrick Loveless) have BAs over .500. Colin Stebral pinch hit in the fifth inning and had a sacrifice fly.

He came off the bench hitting .338. Unbelievable.

“We started out really good and just kind of settled into the game,” said shortstop Nick Day, who had three hits, including a two-run home run. "That first inning was a pretty good inning. We started crushing the ball."

Cascade (23-16) scored twice in the top of the first against Solon ace Brandon Shulista (10-0), but Solon batted 13 in the bottom of the inning, scorching Cougars starter Jake Green for 10 hits. That included No. 9 hitter Austin Dall's three-run double and a three-run inside-the-park homer to center by Loveless.

“They blew up,” said Cascade Coach Roamn Hummel. “We knew that they were a very good team, and that this type of thing could happen. Unfortunately it did.”

Solon beat Cascade twice handily in the regular season, but give the Cougars credit for hanging in there this time. It looked like the 10-run mercy rule would go into effect when Solon led in the fifth, 14-4, but Jake Manternach hit a two-out grand slam to extend the game.

All eight runs against Shulista were earned, doubling his previous season total. Cascade upset rival Dyersville Beckman, 13-4, in the district finals to get to this game, going 21-6 in its final 27 games after a 2-10 start.

"We talked to a lot of coaches about (Shulista)," Hummel said. "We knew that he was going to come out here and compete against us. Our guys have been on a roll here. We just saw the two kids from Dyersville (Isaac Willenbring and Eric DeSousa), who have been two of the best pitchers in the state the last couple of years. I think that gave us a lot of confidence saying 'Hey, if we can do that against those guys, we can hit anybody.'"

That's got to be what Solon says as well. The Spartans' only two losses this season have been to Class 3A teams Marion and Benton Community.

And the REALLY scary thing? There are no seniors on this team.