Single-A American Legion: Post 15 Iola Indians
GARNETT The American Legion season ended Wednesday night for the Single-A Post 15 Iola Indians in the zone championship in Garnett.
After a knock-down, drag-out 10-9 semifinal win over the Topeka Senators to start the evening, the Indians fell 14-1 to zone champions Linn County.
At the beginning of this season, this group of guys had never played together, said Coach Brian Dillow. There was a small group who had played some before but thats it. So for a group of 10-11 guys to get together and to mesh over the season is kind of special. Theyve collectively gotten better over the summer. Thats the whole goal when you play Legion ball. When you get to the zone tournament you want to be playing your best and thats what this team did. Im very proud of them.
Iola led 6-0 after the first three innings of the semifinal game versus the Senators. Seven walks and three hits in the bottom of the third inning got Topeka within two runs.
After the third, Dillow replaced starter Drake Sellman with Brennan Brown to close out the inning followed by Parker Meats to start the fourth.
Meats struggled early, allowing a run in the bottom of the fourth and three in the bottom of the sixth but when the Indians needed him to be on, he was on.
When you get in-tournaments like this and especially when you fall into the losers bracket you really have to manage your pitching, Dillow said. When you get this far, pitching usually wins. As for Parker, I was trying to get through Topeka so Id have him for this game but that just wasnt possible. We had to beat Topeka to even get here and to do that we needed him.
Iola extended its lead to 10 after getting across two runs in the top of the fifth and sixth innings to push the lead to 10-6.
The Indians werent able to build onto that lead in the top of the seventh after Topeka got within a run in the bottom of the sixth. With Meats needing three outs for a win, he clamped down for an 18 pitch, scoreless bottom of the seventh to end the game.
Briar Orth had a single, Sellman had a single, Meats had a double, Josh Hull had a double and a single, Brown had two singles and Xavier Bauer had a single and a triple
Meats was key as well early in the championship game.
With only 38 pitches available, Meats managed his way through 2.2 scoreless innings before having to be pulled on the second-to-last batter of the inning for Logan Dillow.
He was phenomenal, Coach Dillow said. All year hes been one of our top pitchers. We can always count on him to come in and throw strikes and get guys out for us.
Both teams were scoreless through three before Linn County opened things up with three runs on three hits in the top of the fourth.
Linn County drove home three more runs in the fifth before exploding for eight in the sixth to go up 14-0.
