Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – A loss at Regina last Wednesday snapped a four-game winning streak for Solon and spurred some post-game soul searching for the Spartans.

That 5-2 setback also may have been just what Solon needed to get rolling at the right time.

Class 3A eighth-ranked Solon has won three consecutive games following last week’s loss at Regina after a 7-1 win over the Regals in a non-conference contest on Monday in Solon.

“I think that loss actually helped us play our best baseball,” Solon senior Tyson Wheeler said. “We had kind of a coming together moment after that game and we’ve played better the past three games so it definitely was a good thing.”

Solon (24-10) bounced back from the loss at Regina with a sweep of Clear Creek Amana on Thursday.

The Spartans got a strong start from junior Jackson Link and hammered seven hits in Monday’s win to split the season series with Regina (14-18).

“Last week against these guys it didn’t go well so we had a little fire tonight that sparked us,” Link said. “We played well against CCA last week and I think that helped us tonight.”

Link allowed just one run on five hits in six innings on Monday as Solon won for the 10^th time in its last 13 games.

The junior right-hander allowed four hits in the first three innings but induced a 4-6-3 double play in the second and wiggled out of a bases loaded, one-out jam in the third allowing just one run.

“The first two innings I was hanging my curveball and that’s what they took advantage of,” Link said. “When runners got in I was able to dial it in.”

Link struck out four and walked one and allowed just one base runner over the final three innings, a one-out single by Michael Martin in the fourth.

“We went four innings barreling baseballs and the last three innings we didn’t and he didn’t gain five miles per hour,” Regina coach Steve Pacha said. “We have to understand if things aren’t falling it’s still a success. We have two more at bats, if you are finding the barrel you can’t give in, next inning you have to go back up there knowing that it may not have fallen but it felt good off the bat.”

Solon took the lead in the first inning when Brett White scored on a Gehrig Turner double and added another run on a throwing error.

The Spartans answered the Regina run in the third with two in the bottom of the inning on back-to-back run-scoring doubles by Vince Steinbrech and Maddox Kelley.

“There is a kind of a fire lit under you when you play a team again that just beat you,” Wheeler said. “We didn’t play well the first time but tonight we came out and played really well.”

Turner had two hits to lead Solon while Steinbrech, Kelley and Cole Farnsworth all had hits and drove in runs for the Spartans.

Martin had two hits for Regina which opens postseason play on July 9 against Cascade or Clayton Ridge at Dyersville Beckman.

Regina            001  000  0  –  1  5  3

Solon              202  030  x  –  7  6  0

W – Jackson Link                               L – Connor Nicpon

2B – SOL: Gehrig Turner, Maddox Kelley, Vince Steinbrech

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