No. 6 Fairfield spanks Solon

The sixth-ranked Fairfield baseball team let loose on a talented Solon squad on Tuesday night. After going down early, the Trojans put up 14 runs in just five innings, giving Fairfield a 14-4 victory.

Solon looked good early. The Spartans knocked in three runs off Fairfield starter Kosta Papazoglou in the top of the first but the Trojans more than doubled that output in the bottom of the inning.

The Trojans loaded the bases with nobody out. Solon turned a double play to get the first two outs, but the Trojans plated seven before the third out could be recorded. After a wild first inning, it was 7-3 Fairfield.

After a scoreless Solon second, Cole Engle blasted a solo homer to right-center field. That brought the Trojan lead to 8-3 after two.

Solon put up one in the fifth inning to cut the advantage to 8-4, but that just set up for the knockout blow in the bottom of the inning.

Austin Simpson crushed a three-run home run in the fifth. Engle had a three-run triple, and Ledger finished the game off with an RBI single to win the game on the 10-run rule.

'The boys are really buying in to the process that we're teaching them,” head coach Josh Allison said after the win. 'They're taking the little things that we work on in practice and executing in the games. They're coachable kids, and they're working hard.”

Engle finished 3-4 with a home run, a triple and two RBIs to lead the offense. He finished the game a double shy of the cycle. Simpson went 2-3 with a homer and three RBIS. Papazoglou went 3-3 with a double and two RBIs. Cadan Jones was 1-3 with two RBIs and Elan Ledger finished 1-4 with an RBI.

Papazoglou picked up the win on the mound, giving up three earned runs on four hits and two walks, while striking out five batters over three innings. Ledger threw two innings and gave up one unearned run on one hit, while striking out two.

The Trojans finished the regular season 24-4. They'll take on Ft. Madison in the district tournament opener on Friday, July 19, at approximately 7 p.m. Mt. Pleasant and Clear Creek-Amana will play in the 5 p.m. game, also in Fairfield.

'Right now, we're 0-0,” said Coach Allison. 'Everybody starts over and anything can happen in the postseason. We're now focused solely on Ft. Madison. We're not going to overlook them. They've got a good team and they've got some guys that can pitch it, so we've got to be ready to play some baseball on Friday.”