INDEPENDENCE — With it finally feeling like baseball weather again, the Mustangs were able to regain some of their swagger and pick up their first doubleheader sweep of the season over previously undefeated Independence.
“To come get a sweep of a really good team shows we can play with the best of them,” Iola sophomore Derek Bycroft said.
Not only were the Mustangs able to take both games from the Bulldogs, but they were able to keep both Bycroft and senior Ben Cooper under the 75-pitch mark which makes them eligible to return on Tuesday for a pivotal road doubleheader against league-rival Anderson County.
In game one’s 4-2 victory, Bycroft came out with his A-game early and had five four-hit innings without allowing an earned run.
“I felt like it was a warmup for next week, because next week’s games are league,” Bycroft said. “I kept my fastball down, my curveball was working and I was able to stay consistent the whole game.”
Bycroft also helped get the offense going in the third inning as he and senior Coleson Wiggin hit back-to-back doubles to begin the inning.
Wiggin’s double scored Bycroft and Wiggin later scored on a single from junior catcher Ethan Tavarez. The Mustangs got a third run in the frame when senior Ben Cooper drew a bases-loaded walk to score junior Isaac Vink.
The Mustangs added an insurance run when new leadoff hitter Calvin Delich doubled in sophomore Blake Ashmore in the fifth inning.
“Calvin is going to be a great hitter, he already is,” Bycroft said. “He is a switch hitter so he can do anything at the plate. He gets on base a lot so it is nice to have a guy like that in front of you.”
To preserve Bycroft for Tuesday’s games, Percy gave the sixth and seventh innings to freshman Cal Leonard. Leonard didn’t allow an earned run and surrendered just one hit as he picked up the save.
Cooper got the game two start and picked up right where the underclassmen had left off. He stymied the Bulldog offense and held them to one run in 5 2/3 innings pitched.
The Iola offense scored a run in the third inning when Wiggin scored on a Tavarez single.
A pitcher’s dual ensued, until the Mustang offense was able to break a 1-1 tie in the top of the seventh inning.
Bycroft led off the inning with a walk. Leonard hit a one-out single to move Bycroft into scoring position and with two outs, Vink singled home Bycroft to give the Mustangs the lead.
Leonard scored an insurance run on a wild pitch to give Iola the 3-1 lead.
Senior Darius Greenawalt — who recorded the final out of the sixth inning after coming in with a runner on third — got his first win of the year by notching a clean seventh inning.
“It felt nice and brought my confidence up because the last couple games, I didn’t pitch my best,” Greenawalt said.
The Mustangs improve to 4-2 this season.
BACK IN THE SWING: Mustangs flex muscle, sweep past Bulldogs on the road
