American Legion Baseball: Post 15 Iola Indians
HUMBOLDT The Post 15 Iola Indians turned in two solid performances on Saturday in the zone championship tournament held at the Humboldt Sports Complex on their way to a zone championship and back-to-back state tournament appearances.
The Indians beat Garnett 11-3 in five innings to start off the day and came back later that afternoon to defeat Frontenac 3-1 in the championship game.
The zone championship follows a string of righted-wrongs for both the Iola and Humboldt players over the past several months. For Iola, the zone championship follows the breakthrough win of their first baseball state championship after coming close multiple times throughout the 13-year history of the of the high school program.
For Humboldt, they managed to return to State back in May after being away for three years.
Now players from both teams can revel in another milestone after finishing second in the zone tournament last season.
This is the expectation for this team because we know that we have great talent, Derek Bycroft said. We all have great talent. Weve gotten used to winning. It hasnt gotten old or anything but this is the benchmark that weve set for ourselves.
The wins push Iolas record to 19-5 heading into state.
The Indians got off to a fast start after Garnett took a brief 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Iola scored five runs and batted around to push ahead of the Muddogs 5-1.
A sac-fly from Bycroft scored Daylon Splane in the second and three more runs in the third to push their lead to 9-1.
Two more runs were scored on starter Cal Leonard in the top of the fourth but back-to-back outs ended the inning before more damage was done. Leonard allowed four hits and struck out six.
Iola added on with a run in the bottom of the fourth and fifth to push their lead to 11-3 and end the game on a run-rule.
Isaac Vink had a single and a double, Splane had two singles, Bycroft had two singles and Blake Ashmore had a double.
The Indians were then reunited with Frontenac, a team they seemed to be on a collision course with since Iola beat them 1-0 back in the zone elimination game in 2017.
Frontenac was the two-seed in Iolas regional tournament during the school year and seemed to be their biggest threat from going to state. However, Frontenac lost to Girard and the clash was postponed until Saturday.
Just like in game one versus Garnett, Frontenac jumped out to an early and brief 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Iola jumped back in front after the Frontenac starter walked three of the Indians first four batters.
