American Legion Baseball: Post 15 Iola Indians
Being down three starters was not enough to stop the Post 15 Iola Indians Monday night as they swept Yates Center on the road in their final games before the zone tournament on Saturday.
The Indians shutout the Wildcats 11-0 in five innings in game one before winning game two 4-2 in three innings. Game one ended in a run-rule and game two ended due to insufficient light. Iola is now 17-5 so far this season.
The Indians were without starting infielders Blake Ashmore and Derek Bycroft and outfielder Kane Rogers but showed off their depth with players Hunter Baughn, Jackson Aikins and Conor Haviland filling in an even larger role in the two wins.
I think we did all right considering three of our main players were unavailable, Ethan Tavarez said. But today we kind of showed that not having them affected us a little bit. But were doing a good job fighting through it and getting some wins.
Iola jumped out in front early in game one, scoring three runs, two of which were scored on a double from Tavarez.
Four more crossed in the top of the second including another RBI for Tavarez who had four on the day.
Iola was 90 feet away from ending it in the fourth but came up short, leading them to end the game with a four-run top of the fifth that put them up 11-0.
I think were starting to hit the ball better, Isaac Vink said. I think our defense and our pitching has always been there. So we just need to keep hitting the ball.
Vink started the game and went the full five innings and was on top of it while doing so, allowing only a few Wildcat hits. Full stats were unavailable for both games.
The lights shut off before game two and refused to turn back on. So, with the sun setting, the Indians knew their time was limited.
Another quick start in game two saw both Cal Leonard scoring Isaac Vink on a sac-fly and Daylon Splane scoring on a passed ball to take an early 2-0 lead.
Tavarez got the start in game two for the Indians but only went two innings before leaving the mound with some arm pain.
Nate Berry took over in the third with Iola leading 4-0 and couldnt find the zone, loading the bases and allowing two runs to score on errors.
With one out and the bases loaded, Splane took over and recorded two straight strikeouts to get out of the inning without more damage done.
After the third, with the sun dropping below the treeline in the distance, the game was called.
The Indians are now set to head into zone tournament play on Saturday. The tournament will actually start on Friday but Iola will open things up with the winner of Garnett and Columbus at the Humboldt Sports Complex the next day at 10 a.m.
