Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – In her senior night introduction Camryn Keith had naturally listed her most memorable softball experience as her four-home run game against Dyersville Beckman last season.

By the end of Wednesday’s senior night meeting with Marion Keith had a new favorite memory.

Keith hammered a grand slam in the second game of a WAMAC East Division doubleheader against Marion helping Solon to a wild 12-11 win in the nightcap and a doubleheader split with the Wolves.

“That was good, it was about the same feeling as the four home runs,” Keith said. “That was a definitely a good way to go out on senior night.”
Marion (18-16, 12-10) won the opener 6-3 before Solon (18-14, 12-10) secured the split with a 12-11 win in the nightcap with a run in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The two teams will meet again in eight days in a Class 4A, Region 7 opening round contest in Solon.

With a postseason meeting around the corner neither team wanted to tip its hand on Wednesday with both sides using its top pitchers sparingly or not at all.

Still, Solon managed to earn some momentum heading into the meeting next week with a win in game two.

“I’m just glad that we got one,” Solon senior Meg O’Neil said. “It’s hard to beat a team three times in a row but we really needed to take at least one tonight before next week.”

Marion hit a trio of solo home runs in the opener and tacked on three runs in the seventh inning on its way to a 6-3 win.

Solon jumped out to an early lead in game two with a five-run first inning and Keith’s grand slam in the second.

The senior first baseman launched a pitch over the left center field fence for her third home run of the season to put Solon up 9-1 in the second inning.

“It just felt really good. When it came off my bat my first thought was a I was worried it wasn’t going to go out,” Keith said. “As I was rounding first I saw it was gone and I got to home plate and the whole team was there and that was a really good feeling.”

Marion cut the lead to 9-4 with three runs in the third and came all the way back to tie the score with six runs in the top of the seventh inning.

Solon responded quickly in the bottom of the inning.

O’Neil double with one out and scored on a ground ball up the middle by eighth grader McKenna Rogers.

“There was a lot of gamesmanship and I like how we responded,” Solon coach Brad Holub said. “When they tied it up we made the plays we needed to get out of the inning and then we responded.”

Game 1

Marion                       011  100  3  –  6  6  1

Solon                         010  000  2  –  3  8  1

W – Ella Cooper                     L – Carly Ellison

2B – SOL: Camryn Keith, Hilary Wilson. MAR: Michaela Goad

HR – MAR: Michaela Goad (2), Peyton Johnson

Game 2

Marion                       013  001  6  –  11  10  4

Solon                         540  110  1  –  12  10  2

W – Kendall Jensen                 L – Michaela Goad

2B – SOL: Tiffany Primmer, Meg O’Neil. MAR: Michaela Goad, Peyton Johnson

HR – SOL: Camryn Keith

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