Its hard to say what brought the Post 15 Indians to dropping nearly 40 runs in two games on Garnett Thursday night.
It couldve been the Muddogs pitching but the two teams had played two weeks prior and Iola won by only 5-0 and 4-2. Maybe it was errors. Teams that cant field often run into 15- and 20-point quagmires but Garnett played pretty cleanly. Maybe it was Iolas focus that night or, as head coach Levi Ashmore joked, maybe it was the unseasonably cool and rainy weather last night that caused the Indians 21-2 and 18-0 outbursts.
For the first day of summer it kind of had me fooled, Ashmore said. You wouldve guessed it was a late September night. Its kind of weird but the kids came out to play and it was almost like the weather did something to us, too, maybe thats why we played so good.
Reasoning aside, the Indians, 12-2 and winners of 10 straight, walked off the field knowing they played their best baseball of the season.
We played to our potential, Ashmore said. And thats what we want to do every day. Sometimes you can come out and play to your potential and lose, and other times, like today, against a team you should beat, you can come out and play to your potential and win big. We had kids hitting the ball all over the place and we also pitched really well. Its just a good day of baseball.
The dominance didnt take long to kick in. In game one, Iola led off the top of the first with seven runs including a near home run for Kane Rogers that turned into a double that scored the first run of the game.
Stats were unavailable, but every Indian got at least one hit and most recorded more than one in both games.
Splane drove in two more in the top of the third and Derek By-croft, who tossed three scoreless innings as the starting pitcher, drove in Splane to push Iolas lead to 10-0.
Iola went into the top of the fourth with enough runs to trigger the run-rule at the end of the inning but the Indians were far from done. Iola scored 11 times in the top of the fourth to push its lead to 21.
Darius Greenawalt took over on the mound and struggled some, letting two runs score, before getting out of the inning to end the game.
Game two started slower with no runs scored in the first two innings. In the top of the third the Indians got to work, starting with a single from Daylon Splane to score Ethan Tavarez. Seven runs crossed before the inning was over.
Another scoreless inning flew by before Iola got back to work in the top of the fifth, starting with a single from Rogers that scored Jackson Aikins, followed by doubles from Bycroft, Cal Leonard who started game two and threw four scoreless innings and Tavarez to push the lead to 14-0. Four more scored for Iola before the end of the inning.
Coaches called on Nate Berry to close. After running into some struggles on the mound versus Garnett, Berry sat the Muddogs down in order to end the game.
The Indians will have the weekend off before hosting Baldwin Tuesday and traveling next weekend for the difficult Fort Scott tournament.
Im not sure how good Baldwin is but I know that the Fort Scott tournament will be a good test for us, Ash-more said. Itll be really good for us. Hopefully, well have to face some adversity right before we get to the postseason.
