Iola needed a confidence boost after being shutout in a pair of losses to Chanute in their season opener last Thursday. They got that boost thanks to a doubleheader sweep of Central Heights in their home debut.
The Mustangs have been trying to get their offense going and while the batting order still isn’t clicking on all cylinders, they hope that one big at-bat from Tuesday night can be a catalyst for greater things to come.
“We know we have hitters on this team,” senior Keanen Badders said. “We are just all in a slump.”
In the bottom of the seventh with the score knotted at three, the Vikings made the decision to walk the bases loaded to create a force-out at any base with two outs and send a struggling Badders to the plate.
“I wanted to make them pay for that move,” Badders said.
That extra motivation served Badders well in his biggest plate appearance of the night.
“It didn’t start out as a very good day,” Badders said. “I was 0-for-3 (going into that at-bat).”
The senior — who was one of the top hitters for the Mustangs last season — was the eighth-place hitter for Iola in game two of the Tuesday doubleheader.
“He can hit,” Iola coach Mark Percy said. “We’ve just been waiting for it to come.”
When his team needed him to come through, Badders stroked a single to centerfield and allowed his team to celebrate.
“They threw me a fastball inside and I got a base hit, a lucky base hit, I’d say,” Badders said.
Luck or not, the Mustangs will take it. The 4-3 victory coupled with a 4-1 game-one win got the Mustangs record back to an even .500 at 2-2.
“Those were two pretty good games,” Percy said. “We are a long way from where we need to be, but two wins is big for us right now.”
Despite the heroics of Badders, the top players for the Mustangs were once again their pitchers as Ethan Scheibmeir and Ben Cooper each gave the team a good start.
“They are big,” Badders said. “Our pitching has been carrying us.”
Scheibmeir threw in the game-one win and threw four perfect innings to begin his night of work. For the game, the junior threw six innings and only allowed one run on two hits.
