OTTAWA — The Iola A Indians attempted to overcome a deficit in a season-ending 8-6 loss to Ottawa’s A’s in the American Legion zone tournament Thursday.
Iola (15-8) held a 2-1 advantage from the bottom of the second until the top of the sixth only to have Ottawa storm back with four runs in the sixth inning.
Iola made a fighting comeback by scoring four runs in the final three innings but came up just short, 8-6.
“It just takes us awhile to get started every game,” Iola head coach Jason Bauer said. “Some mental mistakes hurt us, we’ve got to hit and we can’t give out free passes. You turn three double plays in a summer legion contest and lose, that’s unheard of.”
Ottawa’s Stetson Miller scored on a Gavin Jones wild pitch in the top of the second for the early 1-0 lead.
Iola then struck with a Jacob Harrington two-run double to right field which plated Ryan Golden and Drake Weir for the 2-1 lead.
“That should have given us some momentum,” said Bauer. “We were still acting like we were behind. It’s growing pains.”
Neither team scored again until the sixth inning when Ottawa’s Miller lined an error to the first baseman which allowed one more run to cross and tie the game at 2-2. Servin Rumold singled to right field to plate another and Keaton Mallicoat sent a sac fly to right to put Iola down, 4-2.
Rumold scored again on a wild pitch for the 5-2 lead.
Tyler Lord got the Indians back into the game in the sixth when he singled to left field to bring home Golden and Harrington and bring it within a 5-4 deficit.
Will Altic led off the seventh by doubling to center field to score a run and make it 6-4. 
Iola knotted it up in the seventh when Kyler Isbell was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to make it 6-5. Harrington then hit a sacrifice fly to center field to bring home Kade Nilges for the 6-6 tally.
Ottawa secured the victory in extra innings when Landon Giest grounded out to shortstop to score a run and go ahead, 7-6. Two at bats later, Zachary Winter doubled to left field to plate one more for the 8-6 win.
Jones started on the mound going 5.1 innings and allowing four runs on two hits while striking out four. Nilges then recorded one out in the sixth and surrendered one run.
Golden took the loss for Iola, pitching 1.2 innings in relief and allowing three runs to score on three hits with six walks and two strikeouts. Weir recorded the final two outs in the eighth and didn’t allow a hit.
