Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Hilary Wilson is going to relax.

Camryn Keith is planning to watch a friend play golf.

Whatever activity the rest of the players on the Solon softball team have planned for their back-to-back days off this weekend they are certainly well-earned.

Solon capped a marathon 10-day stretch that featured 15 games on eight days with a pair of wins at its own afternoon triangular on Friday defeating Central DeWitt 5-4 and downing Keokuk 14-4 in 5 innings.

“It’s been intense,” Solon junior shortstop Hilary Wilson said. “We have had a lot of games the last seven days so we wanted to win these today before our break. I know we are all tired but I feel like we pulled through and worked together.”

Wilson had three hits, Ava Stebral drove in four runs and Camryn Keith pounded a two-run homer in the win over Keokuk (6-19) as Solon improved to 16-12.

The win snapped a three-game losing skid that started with a loss in the nightcap of a doubleheader with 4A No. 14 Benton Community on Tuesday and included two losses to 3A top-ranked Mount Vernon on Wednesday.

“I think we are getting better at playing and winning as a team,” Keith said. “We need every single person in the dugout wanting to win in order to win and we need to use everybody to do that and we are getting a lot better at that.”

Solon built a 5-1 lead and held on to win its opener over Central DeWitt (11-17) on Friday.

Against Keokuk the Spartans overcame a slight early hiccup with an impressive offensive performance.

Solon had 16 hits and its 14 runs matched a season high and were the most during the Spartans busy 10-day stretch.

“I think we knew that we were very capable of doing that it was just a matter of getting someone on and stringing hits together,” Keith said. “It usually takes us a while, we have to see a couple people do it before the bats start rolling.”

Keokuk scored three runs on just one hit in the second inning to take a 3-1 lead before Solon answered swiftly with four runs in the bottom of the inning.

Carly Ellison led off the Solon second with a single and Keith tied the game with a two-run blast to left center.

“I was going to take a pitch to see where it was at and I got two straight balls,” Keith said. “The next one came and I did a little slow load to get the right timing and hit the center of it.”

Stebral had an RBI single in the four-run Solon second and Keith doubled and scored as Solon added two more runs in the third.

“I think it was really important for us to answer right back like that,” Wilson said. “We all knew we didn’t want to lose these games today and we were all tired but we knew we had to win these games and we stepped up.”

Solon put the game away with seven runs in the fifth inning.

Tiffany Primmer, Mia Stahle, Meg O’Neil, Wilson and Ellison all had RBI singles in the fifth and Stebral had a two-run double in the inning.

Every Solon started had a hit and 10 total Spartans had a hit against Keokuk, eight different Spartans scored a run and seven had an RBI in the win.

“We seem to get down a little bit but when we get down we seem to find our way back up,” Wilson said. “We have a lot of people on the team that can get us back up.”
Solon                          000  230  0  –  5  6  2             

Central DeWitt         100  012  0  –  4  7  3

W – Kendall Jensen                   L – Paige Owens         SV – Izzy Frees

2B – SOL: Ava Stebral, Meg O’Neil, Camryn Keith. CD: Ava Morris

HR – CD: Hannah Palzkill, Paige Owens

Keokuk                     030  01  –    4   5   0   

Solon                         142  07  –  14  16  2    

W – Izzy Frees                        L – Issabelle Evans

2B – SOL: Ava Stebral, Camryn Keith

HR – SOL: Camryn Keith

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