Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Despite a little home run history during her varsity career Camryn Keith has never really considered herself much of a home run hitter.

Keith hit her first career home run as a sophomore in 2019 and had a pair of long balls in the first 12 games this season.

Last Monday the Solon junior first baseman surpassed her entire home run hitting history in a span of four at bats in a single game while producing one of the most impressive feats in state history.

Keith hit home runs in four consecutive at bats last week in an 18-3 win at Dyersville Beckman in the first game of a doubleheader.

“This is my 20^th year and I’ve never seen a girl hit four home runs in the same game and those were actually on consecutive at bats,” Solon coach Dave Johnson said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. They actually went over about the same 20-foot section of fence in left field.”

The historic feat for Keith actually started out in inconspicuous fashion as she struck out in her first at bat in the first inning but reached on a drop third strike.

Keith responded with a solo home run in her second at bat.

“My first at bat I got on with a dropped third strike so I wasn’t super confident going into my second one but I hit it over,” Keith said. “It was a perfect pitch right where I like it.”

That was just the start for Keith who homered in her final three at bats in consecutive innings.

Keith hit a two-run homer in the third, a three-run shot in the fourth and closed with a two-run bomb in the fifth.

“I went up the second time and had a little more confidence and she threw me the same exact pitch again,” Keith said. “The next two I really didn’t think I was going to see many strikes and they even switched pitchers they threw me strikes.”

Keith finished with nine RBI during the four-home run outing that took her career homer total from three to seven.

“It was just a dialed in swing,” Johnson said. “Just a beautiful swing, she wasn’t trying to hit it out, she was trying to hit line drives and the ball caught some air and took off.”

Keith hit .417 with 13 and four doubles but didn’t homer during a breakthrough sophomore season a year ago.

She spent the first half of the season in flex position playing first base but rarely hitting before joining the batting order midway through the season.

“At the beginning of last season she was not even in the batting order for us, she was hitting JV and was in the flex position for the first half of the season getting a few at bats now and then and she worked her way in about mid-season last year and has just been on an incline ever since,” Johnson said. “Camryn is the type of kid you want to coach because she comes in and works hard every day, gives you 100 percent every day and never takes time off at practice.”

Keith has continued her hot hitting this season.

She is hitting .554 with six home runs and a team-high 37 RBI through 19 games.

“I felt good coming into the season,” Keith said. “I like all the girls on the team which definitely helps and we all get along really well.”

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