Over the past 23 years as a high school baseball coach, Marion’s Steve Fish has had plenty of wins that were more polished than the one Tuesday night over Cascade.

Yet few have been as sweet.

With an 11-1 six-inning comeback that was really tighter than the score might indicate, the injury-depleted but scrappy Indians found a way to hand their beloved coach his 500th career victory.

Fish, 50, now joins an elite list of just 53 other Iowa coaches to reach that milestone.

“It’s an honor to be in that group,” he said. “But, in reality, what it means is that I’ve had a lot of assistant coaches who are just as passionate about the game as I am.

“And I’ve had a lot of good players who have been passionate about baseball.”

As always, it was a well-coached team that came up with the win Tuesday night.

Though laden with underclassmen, the Indians played error-free ball and came up with several defensive gems to kill Cascade rallies.

A timely hit here, a walk there, aggressive base-running that caused errant overthrows and what was a 1-0 deficit going into the third inning turned into a blowout.

“These kids just find a way to win,” said Fish afterward. “Not a lot of  hype. They just play the game the way it’s supposed to be played.”

Not real flashy, perhaps, but sound enough to boost their season record to 16-9.

And they did it Tuesday night with freshmen pitcher Christian Sekl getting his first-ever start and holding Cascade to five hits over six innings.

“His pitches aren’t real fast,” admitted the coach. “But he puts it over the plate.”

Steady and sure also describes Fish’s 500-261 career coaching record.

The son of a career Navy officer, Fish grew up all over the world but spent his last three years of high school at a naval base in Japan. The school, oddly enough, was named after Nile Kinnick.

Although his father had grown up in Fort Madison, Fish had only been through Iowa once in his life on a family trip before enrolling at Coe College in 1979.

“One of my friends from high school had come to Coe the year before,” Fish explained. “My dad though it would be a good place for me. And I got a good financial aid package.”

Once here, he decided to stay.

He played baseball at Coe for the legendary Harold “Pinky” Primrose, who also doubled as the Washington high school coach.

Primrose, whose 712 prep wins rank 15th all-time in the state, then took him on as an assistant for two years.

“I owe an awful lot to Pinky,” Fish said. “He had a great baseball mind. Coaching under him, I did a lot of learning and listening.”

He then spent 12 years at Central City, serving as athletic director and coaching other sports, and regularly logged 20-or-more wins a season in baseball.  After coaching ninth grade baseball at Marion for two years, he’s now in his 11th year as varsity head coach.

His 2006 Indian team, with current pro player Matt Holland as the staff ace, reached the 3A state tournament for the first time in school history, but lost its first-round game 1-0 to Carroll on an error in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Fish has high hopes for this year’s overachievers.

The team’s top pitcher, Cale Cannoy, is out for the year with an arm injury, so it’s been an inexperienced crew handling the mound duties.

“This has been a special group of kids,” Fish said. “They’ve really had to step up and grow up. And we have five seniors who are pretty classy kids who have held it together.

“We have a lot of fun, too. I always tell the kids that this is much more than a game. It’s about relationships and learning life skills. That’s what’s important.”

CASCADE (1)
Trumm, cf, 3 0 0 0, Gehl, ss, 3 0 0 0, Green, 2b, 2 0 0 0, Takes, rf, 3 0 2 0, McMullen, 3b, 3 0 1 0, Manternach, 1b, 3 0 0 0, Hoffman, c, 2 0 0 0, Coyle, c, 1 0 0 0, Knuth, dh, 3 1 2 1, Heim, p, 0 0 0 0, Bergfield, p, 0 0 0 0, Frey, lf, 0 0 0 0. Totals, 23 1 5 1.

MARION (11)
Semler, 2b, 3 2 2 0, Wagner, 3b, 3 2 1 1, Nielsen, ss, 4 1 2 2, Albaugh, rf, 3 1 0 0, Biery, 1b, 3 1 1 1, Johnson, c, 3 1 0 0, C. Cannoy, cr, 0 1 0 0, Charipar, cf, 4 0 1 1, Fish, dh, 2 2 2 1, Stekl, p, 0 0 0 0, Davila, lf, 3 1 1 1. Totals 28 11 10 7.

Cascade      010 000 -  1   5 4
Marion        003 242 - 11 10 0

Heim, Bergfield (6) and Hoffman, Coyle (5). Stekl and Johnson. W - Stekl. L - Heim. 2B - Semler, Nielsen, Fish. HR- Knuth.