Iola’s repeat hopes hanging by thread

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Sports

May 9, 2014 - 12:00 AM

LACYGNE — Mother Nature gave Iola High a reprieve in its faint hopes for a second consecutive Pioneer League baseball championship Thursday.
The Mustangs  (11-7) trailed host Prairie View 12-3 in the fourth inning when a round of thunderstorms forced umpires to suspend the game.
The game will be resumed at 1 p.m. Monday, with Prairie View coming to bat in the bottom of the fourth.
If the Mustangs can come back and win, they’ll face top seed Wellsville in the championship later Monday, at about 6 o’clock. A loss relegates Iola to the third-place game against Osawatomie at about 4.
Head coach Mark Percy isn’t giving up hope on a comeback, noting Prairie View may not be able to pitch its ace when action resumes.
The Buffalos’ Jordan Fulks had held the Mustangs in check for the most part before the rains came.
“We’ll see who they come back with,” Percy said.

PRIOR TO THE rain, Iola rode the hot pitching of freshman Ethan Scheibmeir to a 10-0 victory over Anderson County.
Scheibmeir shut down the Bulldogs on five hits, striking out seven.
“We needed that,” Percy said. “We’ve been looking for a third pitcher besides Trent (Latta) and Derrick (Weir.) He really gave us a lift.”
Meanwhile, Iola pushed across single runs in the first and third innings before erupting for four in the fifth and four more in the sixth.
Scheibmeir singled, stole a base and scored on Drew Faulhaber’s sacrifice bunt to open the scoring. Ben Cooper reached on an error with nobody out in the third to lead to the second run.
Latta and Weir singled to lead off the fifth. Ethan Sigg drove in a run with a ground ball. Faulhaber and Coleson Wiggin also crossed the plate for a 6-0 lead.
Scheibmeir aided his own cause with a single and double and two runs. Latta singled and scored twice. Weir had a single and run with two sacrifices. Faulhaber had a single, RBI, two walks and a run. Wiggin had a single and two runs. Sigg and Garrett Wade each singled once. Cooper also scored a run.

THE BUFFALOS broke a 1-1 tie with four runs in the second after the Mustangs missed on a scoring chance in the top of the inning.
Latta’s two-out line drive was snared by Buffalo shortstop Kaleb Konitzer with two runners on base to end the inning.
The play loomed even larger when Weir led off the top of the third with a solo blast over the center field wall.
“He smacked it,” Weir said.
The Mustangs closed the deficit to 5-3 in the top of the third. Weir blasted the first pitch he saw over the center field fence. Wiggin and Faulhaber followed with singles, and Sigg’s RBI double had runners on second and third with no out.
But Fulks struck out the next three Mustang batters looking to end the threat.
Faulhaber, who drew the start in the second game, ran into trouble after walking the Buffalos’ ninth-place batter with two outs in bottom of the fourth. Prairie View responded with seven straight hits to score eight runs before the dust settled — and the rains came.

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