Solon's Smith drives 'em in

SOLON - He had no idea.“Wow. Really?” Tyler Smith said.The Solon junior baseman was asked to talk about leading the state in RBIs. The only problem was Smith didn't know it.“I don't really have time to look at that stuff all the time,” he said.Going into his team's double-header last night against Waterloo Columbus, Smith had driven in 59 runs in 30 games. That's 13 more than the second-place guy.He has truly been a cleanup hitter for a Spartans team that is 28-2 and ranked No. 1 in Class 2A. Solon averages 10.4 runs per game and has a state-leading .422 team batting average.“Tyler has a different approach than some of the kids we've coached here,” said Solon Coach Keith McSweeney. “He is extremely competitive. You get that from him inside the lines, but not so much outside.“He's one of those guys who it's all about performance. When the whistle blows, he takes it to another level. I think our football coaches would say the same thing. You don't necessarily see that in practice, not to say that he's a bad practice player or anything, but you just know he's going to be there when the game starts.”Smith hit .400 with 40 RBIs last season as a sophomore for a Solon team that lost in the state tournament semifinals. This season, the average has jumped to .474 and the home run total to 11.There are some guys on this team with Nintendo-like numbers, and Smith is among them."We've played together since we were in fifth grade,” he said. “That's helped a lot. We know each other and what we can do. I'm just happy to be in a spot to drive in runs. That's my job. For example, (leadoff hitter) Marshall Koehn, his job is to get on base and score runs. It's just about everybody doing their jobs.”

Around the bases---- Dubuque Hempstead and Cedar Falls have leads in their respective divisions of the Mississippi Valley Conference going into today's conference play. There's a little less than two weeks remaining in the regular season.Hempstead (22-3 overall) is 16-3 in the Mississippi Division, just ahead of Cedar Rapids Kennedy (14-4), Iowa City West (14-5) and Cedar Rapids Xavier (14-6). Cedar Falls (11-6) is the only team in the Valley Division with a winning record.---- Tanner Hageman of South Winneshiek leads the state in home runs with 16. Sigourney's Andrew Utterback is second with 14, followed by Solon's Smith and Bellevue's Corbin Ploessl with 11 each.