VINTON — The varsity boys opened the 2022 baseball season with 30 runs scored against Vinton-Shellsburg in a doubleheader on the road Monday, May 16. Solon took the opener 14-10 and won the nightcap 16-5.
The boys started the opener with a 3-1 deficit in the first inning and trailed 6-2 in the third. A three run effort in the fourth was met with three more Viking runs as Solon still trailed 9-5. Vinton-Shellsburg plated another run in the bottom of the fifth to go up 10-5. The Spartans exploded in the final two innings with five and four runs respectively for the win.
Brett White led with three hits (including a double), three runs, and one RBI. Jacob Timmons and Austin Bell had two hits each with a homer and five RBIs for Timmons. Blake Timmons, Kinnick Pusteoska, Gehrig Turner, and Logan Gruchow had one hit apiece with two RBIs for Pusteoska and Gruchow.
Brick Kabela took the win with four innings on the mound. Drew Wilcox pitched three innings.
Momentum at the plate continued in the nightcap as Solon plated four runners in the top of the first inning, three in the second, and four more in the third against one Viking run in the bottom of the first.
The Vikings avoided the ten-run mercy rule with three runs in the fourth, however the Spartans scored five more runs in the fifth for a 16-4 advantage. One Vinton-Shellsburg run scored in the bottom of the inning ending the ballgame.
White and Blake Timmons produced two hits apiece with a pair of doubles for Timmons, one for White, four runs for Timmons, and two RBIs for White. Pusteoska, Gruchow, Jacob Timmons, Tyson Wheeler, and Aidan Doyle had one hit each with a double apiece for Gruchow, Timmons, and Wheeler. Pusteoska drove in two runs with one RBI for Bell.
Parker Pentico earned the win with four innings on the mound, Wheeler pitched one inning.