Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Clear Creek Amana and Solon took turns bashing the ball on Wednesday evening.

In a doubleheader that featured a combined 24 runs it was some late pitching and defense that helped the Spartans earn a split.

After Class 4A eighth-ranked Clear Creek Amana hammered 10 hits in a 10-2 five-inning win in the opener Laeni Hinkle worked 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief and Solon made several key defensive plays late as the Spartans won the nightcap 7-5 in a WAMAC cross-division double dip in Tiffin.

“(Clear Creek Amana) is a really good team and they can really hit and our pitching staff threw a lot of different stuff at them, we played some good defense and we were able to keep them at bay,” Solon coach Brad Holub said. “And we were able to score with them.”

Clear Creek Amana (25-11) had 10 hits from seven different players on its way to a 10-2 win in the opener.

Six of those hits came in a six-run Clear Creek Amana fourth inning in which the Clippers sent 10 batters to the plate.

“I was very proud of them in the first game,” Clear Creek Amana coach Reid Kaalberg said. “We put the ball in play, we scored a bunch of runs in a lot of different ways so I am very proud of them for that.”

Elizabeth Timmerman earned the win the opener holding Solon to two runs on five hits and also had two hits.

Caroline Klapperich was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBBI, Addilyn Scheetz had two hits while Lizzie Pasbrig had a hit and drove in three runs and Carley Nash had a hit and drove in two runs for the Clippers.

“We knew exactly what we were going to see with their pitchers so I am very proud of our girls for adjusting their hitting,” Kaalberg said. “I am very proud of them for that. We swung the bats very well.”

Solon (17-19) jumped out early in game two and never let Clear Creek Amana climb all the way back.

Beckitt Kabela got Solon on the board early with a two-run double to center field in the top of the first inning.

Kabela had four hits in the doubleheader for the Spartans.

“It’s easy when I can rely on my teammates to hit me in or get things started,” Kabela said. “We really built of each other’s hits tonight which really helps.”

Solon added two more runs in the second inning on a two-out, two-run single by sophomore shortstop Liv Nelson.

The Spartans led 5-0 after an RBI single by freshman Maddy Bell in the third but Clear Creek Amana climbed back.

The Clippers cut the lead to 7-5 with a run in the sixth inning but Hinkle entered in relief of Solon starter Zoey Melloy and escaped a bases loaded jam before working a 1-2-3 seventh inning to earn the save.

“In the second game we scored in four of the seven innings but overall we never stopped fighting,” Kaalberg said. “We were down 5-0 and we came back and kept scoring that last inning just didn’t fall our way.”

Melloy picked up the win allowing five runs, four earned, on eight hits while striking out three in 5 1/3.

“Over the last week to 10 days we’ve grown a lot as a team,” Holub said. “We matured, we’ve gotten smarter, our approaches at the plate have been phenomenal, they are dialed in.

Nelson went 3-for-3 in the nightcap with two runs scored and three RBI to lead Solon while Kabela was 2-for-4 with two RBI.

“For the first time in a while we had confidence and we showed it on the field,” Kabela said. “We had some errors but we gave great effort and made a lot of good plays.”

Brenna Williams went 3-for-3 with two runs scored in game two for Clear Creek Amana and Timmerman had two hits and scored a run.

“I am frustrated with our loss but they battled the whole time,” Kaalberg said. “They kept scoring runs when we needed to stop them so all credit to them in that game.”

Game 1

Solon                                     100  10  –   2    5   3

Clear Creek Amana              202  6x  –  10  10  1

W – Elizabeth Timmerman     L – Emerson Miller

2B – CCA: Caroline Klapperich. SOL: Ashtyn Swancutt, Liv Nelson

Game 2

Solon                                     221  110  0  –  7  9  2

Clear Creek Amana              001  211  0  –  5  8  1

W – Zoey Melloy                   L – Adalynn McElvain

2B – CCA: Caroline Klapperich, Brenna Williams. SOL: Beckitt Kabela, Chloe Madura

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