High School Baseball: Iola Mustangs
History happens every day.
Granted, most of it is small and inconsequential but it happens. And sometimes, even witnesses to said history have a hard time seeing it for what it is at the time.
Here in Iola, something rather meaningful has been unfolding over the last several months over at Ball Diamond No. 3 at Riverside Park.
On Tuesday night, the Mustang baseball team won its 13th-straight game. Wins 12 and 13 came against a Wellsville team thats chock full of talent and whose only loss to that point was versus big-4A Baldwin in extra innings.
Iola swept them and while it was tough, they didnt need some Herculean-feat or even extra innings to get the win. Just good pitching, solid defense and timely hitting.
Tonight, weather permitting, the Mustangs will host a Burlington team thats just as good Wellsville. Sure, the Wildcats got swept by the Eagles at home, but aside from a split with one-loss Humboldt, the Wildcats are sterling.
A sweep there all but guarantees a league crown for Iola as long as they hold up against a struggling Santa Fe Trail team on Tuesday. After that, theyll be just two wins away from another state appearance.
Pitching has been king for the Mustangs despite the fact that theyve averaged eight runs a game.
The team has a total ERA of .99 and is led by junior ace Derek Bycroft who has a .52 ERA in 27 innings and has struck out 41 batters in those innings. Last season, Bycroft struck out 50 batters by the end of the season so he is well on track to top that number.
Cal Leonard has been a revelation as Iolas number two guy with senior Ethan Tavarez not being able to pitch. He has a 1.64 ERA in 25 innings and has struck out 27. He has two complete games under his belt.
Isaac Vink has been a rock-steady three-guy with a .57 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 12 innings. Hell get the start in game one today versus Burlington.
Defensively, the Mustangs have only committed 18 errors and no one on the team has more than four total errors.
The Mustangs are hitting .350 as a team and while they they havent displayed much power (no home runs hit this season) theyve totaled 131 hits. Whats even more amazing is that only 25 of those were for extra bases.
Sophomore Calvin Delich is leading the entire team in batting, averaging a team-high .478 while recording 22 hits.
Bycroft is hitting .449 and also has 22 hits while Vink has 22 hits with a .423 average.
