Solon wins its state bsb tourney quarterfinal, 5-1

We're here at beautiful Principal Park in Des Moines for this Class 2A state baseball tournament quarterfinal.

No. 1 seed Solon has just wrapped up a 5-1 victory over No. 8 Sumner-Fredericksburg.

Solon's Ben Bergman allowed a leadoff single in the first inning, but set down the next three Cougars. He has 10 strikeouts through six innings.

Derrick Loveless led off the Solon first with a double to left, went to third on a groundout by Ben Weeks and scored on a Cody Strang single past second base.

Sumner-Fredericksburg came back in the second. Tanner Wheeler walked with one out and stole second. Bergman threw to first on a pickoff attempt but Wheeler beat first baseman Tyler Smith's throw to second.

That was pivotal because Kyle Kleman singled sharply to right-center with two outs to score Wheeler.

Sumner-Fredericksburg had runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs in the third, but Bergman struck out Patrick Kleman to end the threat. Solon took the lead against S-F pitcher Nolan Nuss on a leadoff double to left by No. 9 hitter Marshall Koehn and a fielding error on second baseman Nolan Gitch, when Gitch let a hard Loveless grounder get past him and into right-center.

The Spartans broke the game open with a three-run fifth. The inning included five hits and a key, two-out error on Gitch.

Strang had a run-scoring triple to dead center that short-hopped the center-field wall. Smith and Shawn Olson also had RBI hits.