A spot in the substate tournament final game has become a regular date for the Marion baseball team.

The Indians scored seven runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and held on to beat Williamsburg, 10-5, in a district tournament final Monday night at Williamsburg. They advanced to Wednesday's substate final at Van Horne, where they were scheduled to face Independence. It's the fourth time in the last five years Marion has played in the substate final.

Wednesday's winner advanced to next week's Class 3A state tournament, which begins Tuesday at Principal Park in Des Moines. Marion's last trip to the state tournament was in 2005.

The win over Williamsburg was the Indians' 11th straight, and they headed into the substate final having won 18 of their last 20 games. Marion (25-12) swept Independence (13-23) in a double-header July 9.

"We had kind of a slow start but we're playing pretty well, and this a game we expected to be in all along," Coach Steve Fish said before Wednesday's game."I suppose we're favored this time, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing," Fish said. "I think Independence is a real dangerous team, and we just played them a little over a week-and-a-half ago."

Austin Wiesinger smacked a two-run single in the fourth to make it 3-1, a key hit for the Indians in the district final win over Williamsburg.

"If we don't get that hit, I think we start to play a little tighter," Fish said.

The Indians then scored seven runs in the bottom of the sixth to go up 10-1. Williamsburg came back with four runs in the top of the seventh to make things somewhat interesting before Marion finally closed the door.

Wiesinger finished 2-for-3 with three RBIs. Dusty Albaugh was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Nathan Johnson, Garrett Fortner and Andrew Charipar each had a pair of hits in the Indians' 14-hit attack.

"I thought we played pretty well, and I was proud of their effort," Fish said.

The Indians reached the district final by virtue of their 5-3 win over WaMaC rival Benton Community, a team they split with during the regular season. That game was played Friday, July 16, also in Williamsburg.

Weisinger had two hits and drove in a run, and Zach Nielsen had an RBI single in the first inning to lead Marion to the win.

Before the Benton game, Marion completed its regular-season and WaMaC Conference schedule by dumping Center Point-Urbana, 10-0, on July 13 at Marion.

The Indians banged out 12 hits, highlighted by three apiece from Kasey Semler and Nielsen. Semler finished 3-for-4 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored, and Nielsen was 3-for-3 with a triple and three RBIs. Dusty Albaugh had two hits - including a double - and scored a run.

Fortner twirled an impressive three-hit, four-strikeout, five-inning shutout to pick up the win. Fortner improved to a team-best 7-3 with a miniscule 1.90 ERA.

After the CP-U game, Fortner had struck out 46 while surrendering 57 hits and 30 walks in 55 1/3 innings. His run support had been tremendous from a team that averaged better than seven runs a game.

It was also announced early this week that senior Dalton Combs and junior Kasey Semler are first-team All-Metro selections. Zach Nielsen is a second team selection, and Casey Cannoy and Nathan Johnson received honorable mention recognition.