The American Legion Post 15 Indians put Monday’s 10-3 loss to the Ottawa Post 60 Arrows behind them quickly with another tough team in Pittsburg Post 64 coming to Alumni Field Tuesday.
After entering the 11th inning deadlocked 1-1, a slew of errors allowed the Arrows to score nine unanswered runs.
“We have a lot to work on, and we have to fix our approach at the plate,” Iola coach T.J. Taylor said. “We only scored in one inning of what was originally scheduled as a seven-inning game. That can’t happen and you can’t win a lot of ball games like that.”
Ty Shaughnessy, Humboldt third baseman, forces an error for a run with this hit Monday against the Ottawa Post 60 Arrows at ACC’s Alumni Field.
After spot appearances from Moran starter Tyler Lord and Iola reliever Broden Emerson, who had one strikeout each, Moran reliever Thomas Allee carried the load for most of the contest. Allee tallied four strikeouts over eight innings before nearing his pitch limit after allowing five runs on five hits and four walks.
Iola reliever Brock Michael took the loss while trying to get the Indians back on track in the 11th inning. Melvern reliever Dalton Lingenfelter kept the Arrows scoreless while closing out the contest in the 12th inning.
Michael tied Iola outfielder Kale Pratt for the team lead in hits and RBIs. The duo had two hits each with one RBI, but it was Pratt who put the Indians on the scoreboard with his sacrifice fly in the opening frame. The Indians went scoreless over the next 11 innings.
“We have to fix our approaches, and our mentality,” Coach Taylor said. “We have to learn to go at them, and we have a lot of season left. The pitchers did what I expected them to do and let them put the ball in play.”
Moran pitcher Thomas Allee strikes out a batter while coming on in relief after the third inning of Monday’s doubleheader.
A grounder in the Indians’ final at-bat by Humboldt third baseman Ty Shaughnessy forced an error and plated Lord. Michael plated Shaughnessy with a blooper to left field, but a follow-up flyout halted Post 15’s rally.
With the loss the Indians’ record falls to 7-6. They will not have long to think about the loss with the Pittsburg Silverbacks coming to town Tuesday. In their previous battle earlier this month, the Silverbacks took both contests 12-4 and 3-0. Results from the contest were not available at press time.
“We had better come ready to play. Pittburg is a good team, so we had better come ready to hit,” Taylor said.
