Iola comes up all AA’s

The Iola Indians secured the AA American Legion state championship with a come-from-behind 10-8 win over Hiawatha Friday. Iola will take on the best of the AAA squads Saturday for a berth in the upcoming American Legion regional tournament in Pelham, Ala.

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Sports

July 29, 2022 - 6:00 PM

TJ Taylor pitches in a 10-8 win over Hiawatha to secure the AA American Legion state championship for the Indians Friday. Photo by Quinn Burkitt / Iola Register

TOPEKA — Rocky Balboa would be proud.

Trailing 8-1 in the American Legion AA state championship game Friday, Iola’s Indians stormed back with nine unanswered runs to defeat Hiawatha, 10-8.

The win secures the AA state title for the Indians, who now set their sights Saturday on whomever emerges from the AAA American Legion bracket for the larger Senior Tournament crown.

The Senior Division winner will advance to next week’s Mid-South Regional Tournament in Pelham, Ala. The Mid-South Regional action begins Wednesday.

“They didn’t quit,” Iola head coach John Taylor said. “You look those kids in the eyes and they want to win for each other. They did all the little things that we asked of them in the dugout.”

It just took a while to get settled in.

Hiawatha burst out the gate to lead 3-0 after half an inning.

The Indians chipped away at the lead with Trey Sommer’s RBI single in the bottom of the first to pull within 3-1.

But Hiawatha responded with two more in the third, and then plated three more in the fourth to lead 8-1.

Iola’s starting pitcher Eli Smith had trouble locating his breaking pitches, Taylor said.

“He was actually the one who made the pitching change,” Taylor said. “He came to me and said, ‘I don’t have it.’  it just shows what kind of leader he is, it takes a big person to do that.,” 

TJ Taylor came on in relief, throwing the final four innings, 

Iola’s bats woke up in the bottom of the fourth, when Gavin Page ripped an RBI single. Two batters later, Nathan Louk singled home a pair to make it 8-4.

Iola wasn’t done.

Kaiden Barnett singled home a run to further slice the deficit, and Sommer ripped a two-run double to score Drake DeLaTorre and Barnett to knot the score at 8-8.

“I rallied them all in the dugout and I said, ‘are we quitters or are we winners?’” Taylor asked. “They showed me they weren’t quitters. It takes one or two big hits and all of the sudden the boys explode behind each other.”

Taylor pitched a 1-2-3 fifth inning to set the stage for Iola’s winning rally. He scored on Smith’s sacrifice fly before Louk singled in Iola’s final run of the game.

That was all the younger Taylor needed. He set down the final six Hiawatha batters of the game to earn the win. He allowed two hits over four innings with a strikeout.

Iola was led at the plate by Louk and Sommer’s three RBI’s while Barnett also drove in two runs in the win. Louk and Carter Hutton led the way with two hits.

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