Solon survives a defensive battle against CCA to advance to the Class 3A-4 quarterfinals

When the Clear Creek Amana Clippers and Solon Spartans split a high-scoring doubleheader in June, it gave an interesting glimpse as to what to expect when they met in Friday's Class 3A-Substate 4 quarterfinals.

Fans hoping for a lot of offense Friday would have been disappointed. Solon weathered the storm and claimed a 2-0 win.

"That is a very hard-nosed team that we just beat," Spartans coach Keith McSweeney said. "They are very well-coached and I have a lot of respect for the athletes they have over there. But our goal all year was to play our best baseball on July 7."

With the strong play of pitchers Josh Loren (Clear Creek Amana) and Vince Steinbrech (Solon), hits were few and far between, making for a lot of inactivity on the scoreboard.

Solon dealt the first blow with a solo home run from Brett White to start the fourth inning.

Three innings later, junior Garret Stebral added another run with an RBI single.

The Clippers shut the door on the Spartans' hopes of scoring again, with the help of a strikeout to close the inning from relief pitcher Robert Meade.

Facing the most important at-bats of the season, Loren said everyone in the dugout knew that it was now or never.

"We kept saying that if we were going to do it, we had to do it now," Loren said. "We were in a hole, but we still had three outs left, so we knew we weren't done yet. Obviously, it didn't end the way we wanted it to, but we didn't lay down even though we didn't get what we wanted going."

Solon will return to action on Monday against top-seeded Wahlert Catholic in Dubuque. White said the team hopes to be back to full strength by the time the game starts. Blake Timmons, a senior captain, has missed the last three games after suffering an injury last week.

"Blake Timmons and I are like best friends," White said. "It was tough not being able to have him playing with us today, but we played for him. Before the game, we said that we were going to play well enough to make sure he was going to have the chance to play one more high school game."

Clear Creek Amana's season ends with a 19-14 record. First-year coach Bryan McCray said he is grateful to have built bonds with his veteran players.

"I very much regret not having more time with them," McCray said. "These seniors have been focused on 'we' instead of 'me.' The integrity and blue-collar work ethic that they came with each and every day allowed me to focus on coaching baseball instead of attitudes. I am immensely grateful to have been around these guys this year."

Raven Moore covers high school and college sports for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Contact her at RSMoore@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Raven_XReport.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Solon baseball beats Clear Creek Amana in substate quarterfinal