PHOTOS: Solon moves on with 5-1 victory

It wasn't the most dominating victory they've had all season, yet it was a comfortable one. Comfortable works, especially at the state baseball tournament.A three-run fifth inning broke open a tight game and helped lift top-seeded Solon past Sumner-Fredericksburg, 5-1, in a Class 2A quarterfinal Monday afternoon at Principal Park. You're a pretty good team when you score half your season average and still win, well, comfortably.“They're a great hitting team. The top of their lineup is unbelievable,” said Sumner-Fredericksburg pitcher Nolan Nuss. “I just tried to hit the outside corner, then throw it inside. But every time I went outside, they'd go to the opposite field. I'd switch up speeds, and they'd still hit it. They were hitting everything I threw at them.”Still they had a tougher time than usual scoring.Solon (37-5) averages more than 10 runs a game and hits .402 as a team. It scored right away in the first inning, thanks to a Derrick Loveless leadoff double and Cody Strang RBI single, but Nuss and Sumner-Fredericksburg (33-11) hung tough.“Clearly they came to battle,” said Solon Coach Keith McSweeney.

It was just a 2-1 game until Solon strung together five hits in the fifth to build a cushion. Strang's two-out, run-scoring triple to the center-field fence plated the first of three big runs.“It's always a little easier playing defense when you've got a lead like that,” said Strang, a .522 hitter. “Everybody was up in the dugout. Hitting is contagious. When every guy gets up there and is confident at the plate, it helps.”Nuss entered Monday's game with a 12-1 record, 1.41 earned run average and .172 opponent batting average, but Solon touched him for 10 hits in six innings. The better pitcher this day was Ben Bergman. The lanky Solon lefty spun a four-hitter, striking out 10. He really settled in late, allowing only one hit the final four innings.“My curveball was a bit sketchy at the beginning of the game,” Bergman (10-0) said. “I had to kind of scrap it at first ... so I really just attacked them with the fastball. Just trying to make them put it in play. I didn't really want to give up walks, free passes, to get a big rally going. I wanted them to get multiple hits to score runs.”McSweeney said he is contemplating bringing back Bergman for Thursday's 6 p.m. semifinal, especially considering St. Edmond has a plethora of lefty hitters. If it's not him, it'll be sophomore righty Brandon Shulista (12-1).