Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – With a full 38 game regular season of varsity baseball under his belt Solon freshman Cam Miller figured dealing with nerves was a thing of the past.

That was before he made his postseason debut.

“I was pretty nervous today,” Miller said. “This is the first game all year I was really nervous.”

Miller didn’t let those nerves affect his performance on Friday.

In his first postseason start Miller tossed a complete game three hitter to lift Solon to a 6-1 win over Mount Vernon (21-17) in a Class 3A District 8 semifinal in Solon.

Miller improved his season record to 8-0 with the first postseason victory of his career and stretched his streak of consecutive games allowing one or fewer runs to eight in a row.

“He’s had a great year and the thing about Cam is that he competes his tail off,” Solon coach Keith McSweeney said. “He doesn’t want anybody else out there.”

Solon (26-13) broke open a 2-0 game with four runs in the sixth inning while stretching its win streak to eight in a row.

The win sent Solon into the District 8 title game where they will host Central DeWitt (25-15) on Monday at 7 p.m.

“We don’t want to go home,” Solon junior Payton Bandy said. “That’s all it is this time of year is we don’t want to stop playing.”

McSweeney made the decision to go with Miller in the postseason opener several weeks ago.

Miller made sure it was the right call.

He struck out five and walked three in the win and now owns a season ERA of .73 in a team-high 57 2/3 innings.

“This is his 10th start and 12th appearance so he’s not a freshman any more,” McSweeney said. “I know it’s different on this stage tonight but you pitch in the WAMAC and you have a .70 ERA you are doing something well.”

Whatever nerves Miller had working on Friday didn’t stick around for long.

The freshman right-hander allowed just a pair of singles and two walks in the first six innings as Solon built a 6-0 lead.

“For a freshman to come in, first postseason game he didn’t blink,” McSweeney said. “He was jacked the second he got here and he didn’t blink the whole game.”

His teammates gave him an early lead to work with and Miller did the rest.

Kendrick Harris led off the second inning with a single and scored four batters later on a two-out RBI single by number nine hitter Spencer Wegmann.

“It was big to get that run early but we had many more coming,” Wegmann said. “I was just the first guy to do but I knew there were going to be more guys to follow me.”

Miller worked around lead off singles in the second and third innings and Solon tacked on another run in the fourth when Luke Ira was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Working with an early lead allowed Miller to be aggressive in the strike zone.

“That was really nice to get a few runs early,” Miller said. “It just helped me feel more confident and allowed me trust my defense.”

Solon put the game out of reach with a four-run sixth inning.

Tyler Linderbaum lined a two-run double to make it 4-0 and Bandy followed with an RBI triple and scored on a throwing error to make it 6-0.

“The first game is always a tough one,” Bandy said. “All the energy and nerves are coming out and now that we got this first one and we got a game under our feet for the young guys I think we will be more confident.”

That was plenty for Miller who didn’t allow a run until the seventh.

Mount Vernon avoided the shutout when Jared Booth scored on a Gabe Golberg double with two outs in the seventh.

 “I know Cam is a warrior on the mound,” Wegmann said. “Regardless of what the score is he is going to throw 100 percent and give it everything he is.”

It was the third win over Mount Vernon in seven days for Solon after the Spartans swept a WAMAC conference doubleheader from the Mustangs last Friday.

Solon gets a chance at redemption on Monday against Central DeWitt after dropping both regular seasons contests to the Sabers.

Central DeWitt won a 3-2 11 inning contest and took the nightcap 12-2 over Solon back on June 12 in DeWitt.

“There is no easy path to Des Moines,” McSweeney said. “Central DeWitt is a good team, they swept up over there and we have a lot of respect for their program so we are going to have to play really well in that game to advance.”

Mount Vernon           000  000  1  –  1  3  1

Solon                           010  104  x  –  6  8  1

W – Cam Miller                      L – Jack Cochrane

2B – SOL: Tyler Linderbaum. MV: Gabe Golberg

3B – SOL: Payton Bandy