BURLINGTON — Anticipating a busy week ahead, John Taylor mapped out his pitching strategies accordingly.
As luck would have it, that busy schedule took a hit when the Iola AA American Legion baseball team learned its Wednesday doubleheader against Pittsburg was a no-go.
“We were trying to get a couple other teams to come, but we weren’t able to get anything put together,” Taylor said. “It’s disappointing any time you lose a home game.”
Since Taylor wasn’t notified until Tuesday evening — in the midst of Iola’s road doubleheader at Burlington — he had two options.
He could bring in his frontline starters, the ones he planned to use against Pittsburg, in Game 2.
Or, Taylor could stick with his previously planned course, to rely on a couple of players who hadn’t pitched in quite a while to test the depth of the Indians’ pitching staff.
Taylor chose the latter, going with lesser-used pitchers, “to stick with the gameplan we had ahead of time.”
Turns out, he chose wisely.
After Noah Ashmore pitched a complete game three-hitter in the opener, a 4-1 victory, Taylor turned to his son, TJ Taylor, to pitch the nightcap. The younger Taylor scattered five hits over four innings in Iola’s 10-3 romp. For good measure, Coach Taylor brought in another seldom-used hurler in Dillon Bycroft to pitch the final inning of Game 2. Like Ashmore and Taylor before him, Bycroft also threw well, allowing no hits and striking out two.
“It’s a comfort knowing that we’re deeper than we thought we were,” Taylor said.
That’s key because the Indians have back-to-back doubleheaders Sunday at Ottawa and Monday evening at home against Parsons.
Another busy week follows with six games in four days.
ASHMORE, who hadn’t pitched in three years prior to Tuesday, didn’t let any kind of layoff affect his command.
He needed just 76 pitches for his complete game win, including 59 strikes.
“Noah pitched great,” Taylor said. “Any time you can go seven innings and only use 76 pitches, you’re doing something right. He was pounding the zone, and when they made contact, they either hit it into the ground, or popped it up.”
Burlington’s only run came on a two-out error in the bottom of the fifth. Ashmore struck out four and had no walks.
Iola was unable to get much going until TJ Taylor reached on an infield single with two outs in the top of the third. An error moved Taylor to second, before he scored on Bradyn Cole’s single to right.
