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The Chugiak Mustangs could have gone one of two ways when they took the field at Growden Memorial Park on Friday.

They could come out moping that their title dreams were gone and sleep-walked through their consolation game.

Or, the could come out with a chip on their shoulder, looking for something to prove.

Tim McCollum did the latter, and the rest of the Mustangs followed their pitcher’s lead as the Cook Inlet Conference champions silenced Soldotna for a 6-0 win at the ASAA State High School Baseball Tournament.

“(We) just (wanted) to show that we’re a pretty good team, even after losing yesterday,” McCollum said.

McCollum helped the Mustangs do just that, setting up a fourth-place showdown today with Dimond after blanking the Stars through seven innings, striking out nine, while allowing six hits and walking three on 89 pitches.

Working mostly with his fastball, McCollum stayed ahead of Soldotna batters, keeping them off balance with an occasional curve.

“Tim’s a guy that has improved every start it seems like since I got him as a freshman. He works really hard to improve himself in the offseason,” Chugiak coach Bill Lierman said. “He can throw a fastball, he can throw a curveball and he’s working on a changeup. His control’s getting better, and when his control is there, like it was today, he’s going to do good things like he did today and keep the other team off balance.”

And Lierman hopes Friday’s performance will have McCollum ready for next season.

“When you get a win (at state), it’s always a good thing,” the coach said. “The good thing is he is a junior and he got a lot of good experience today. So, he’ll be one of the leaders next year to hopefully bring this team back.”

Doug Henie put the Mustangs on the board in the bottom of the second inning, driving in Casey Spink and Derek Henry with a single to left.

Matt Geurts gave Chugiak a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth, singling home McCollum and later coming around to score on designated hitter Ty Griffith’s sacrifice fly to right field.

Zack Morse finished off the Mustang scoring in the fifth by walking and scoring on Spink’s blooper to right field.

Kurt Pataky scored the final run, tripling on a drive to right center and scoring on Guert’s single back up the middle.

Larsen Kohler pitched the complete game for Soldotna, striking out four.

The loss finished Soldota’s run in the state tournament, but left the young Stars feeling good about the years to come.

“We weren’t thinking we were going to be a very strong team in the beginning, but we just pulled together and did really good as a team,” said Stars second baseman Mitchell Thompson, who went 2-for-4 at the plate. “There’s not much to say. We did really good — it was not expected. We’re really glad we made it here.

“I thought we did really good. All we can do is come back next year and do better.”

The Mustangs season continues for one more day as they play for fourth place against CIC rival Dimond.

“Both teams, we’ve seen each other from last year to this year, it’s kind of a bittersweet game for fourth place,” Lierman said. “It should be a good game — they’re a good team, a well managed team.”