Solon Baseball Advances to District Final With Win Over Hudson

Perhaps Solon baseball coach Damien Kopkas should reevaluate his aversion to playing from behind during this year’s playoff season.

For the third straight game, the Comets found themselves trailing. And what do you know? They won again.

This time Solon surprised Northeast Ohio Conference foe and host Hudson, 8-3, Thursday night to advance to the district final today against Medina (4:30 p.m.) back at The Ball Park at Hudson.

Hey, when it’s working, why mess with the formula, right?

“Believe me, it’s certainly not a pattern I like to see,” Kopkas said about coming from behind. “We played in a lot of one-run close games this year. Unfortunately, we haven’t won that many of them, but it’s gotten us prepared to play post-season baseball.”

Down 3-1, Solon (11-12) piled on four runs in the third inning to take a two-run lead and never looked back against Hudson (18-6), defeating them for the second time this season after having knocked them off, 9-5, on May 6.

Senior shortstop Eric Esborn went 2-for-4 and had four RBI to spring the Comet bats including a crucial base hit that scored a pair to tie the game in the third. Esborn had an advanced scouting report on Explorers senior starter Zac Edwards through the Diamond League.

“Funny thing is that pitcher’s actually my teammate in the summer, so I know a little about him,” said Esborn, who was hitting .449 coming into the game. “We had a little rivalry for a few years. I finally got a few RBI there. … Last week we faced (Mike) Mancuso (Brecksville-Broadview Heights) and that prepared us well. Everyone’s having great at-bats, making contact and doing their jobs.”

In the playoffs, the Comets have also defeated Cuyahoga Falls, 4-3, and Brecksville-Broadview Heights, 5-4.

In that third inning, Jesse Circelli smacked a double that pushed Chris D’Amato, who walked, to third with one out. After Michael Dunn struck out, Esborn’s single scored Circelli and D’Amato to tie the game, 3-3.

After Ryan Schwenke walked, both Esborn and Schwenke advanced to second and third on a passed ball after a swinging strike against Anthony DeMarco. Then DeMarco singled to score both Esborn and Schwenke to give the Comets a 5-3 lead they would never relinquish.

Solon tacked on three more runs in the sixth inning to seal it.

The 6-foot-8 Matt Smoral pitched six innings with six strikeouts for the win. Smoral settled down after his team got the advantage, throwing five of his six strikeouts following the Comets’ surge in the third.

“The team showed great fight out there tonight,” Smoral said. “Once we got that lead, I was going to get the ‘W’ for our team. We got that lead and we weren’t looking back from there. It definitely was a huge confidence boost.”

In all fairness to coach Kopkas, it should be pointed out that Solon did lead, 1-0, after the top of the first inning. With two outs, Esborn beat a throw to first on a chopping infield hit to score D’Amato from third base. D’Amato had the unfortunate distinction of getting hit by pitches twice in the game.

In the bottom of the inning, Hudson worked a little two-out magic of its own. With Explorers Matt Ramsay on third and Nate Shaw on first, Comets catcher Schwenke unsuccessfully attempted to catch Shaw stealing second. Ramsay broke for home, but the throw from second was too late and the Explorers tied the game.

Shaw continued to aggressively run the bases and stole third as Mike Lewandowski walked. Esborn had Lewandowski caught in a rundown, leapt to make a tag on him and missed, allowing Shaw to alertly break from third and put Hudson up, 2-1.

In the second, Hudson’s Will Stribrny smashed a double to right field that scored David Nelson, but he was thrown out at third on the relay throw. While Hudson led, 3-1, this marked the end of their scoring on the evening.

Solon       1 0 4 0 0 3 0  8 7 2

Hudson   2 1 0 0 0 0 0  3 4 2