LACYGNE — Mission accomplished. Iola High’s baseball team made it through its Class 4A-II Regional and into the state tournament on Monday night. IOLA WON both games with great pitching. Drew Faulhaber started game one. In the championship game, Ethan Scheibmeir got the start.
After beating Prairie View 3-1 in game one, Iola took on Osawatomie in the championship game to win 7-1. Coach Marty Taylor, filling in for Mark Percy who was dealing with a personal matter, said he expected coach Percy to be happy about the news.
“Absolutely, he’s going to be thrilled about it,” Taylor said. “The kids did a great job all afternoon. It’s their win and they worked their butts off.”
“Don’t do it!” Taylor exclaimed as three Mustangs were preparing to douse the substitute coach with Gatorade. He wasn’t having any part of that until they at least got back to Iola.
It has been since 2013 that IHS baseball has qualified for state.
“Our pitchers threw strikes and they got ahead,” Taylor said. “When they got in a jam, especially the first game, we had big plays in the field. We turned four double plays. We never gave up or let them get a head of steam.”
Iola never lost the lead in game one’s 3-1 win over Prairie View.
The Mustangs went on a two-out rally in the third inning to get two runs. Ben Cooper started it with a walk. Faulhaber followed with an RBI-double. He stole third and Scheibmeir hit Faulhaber in on a double.
Iola held its 2-0 lead until the fifth inning, when Prairie View was able to get one run around the bases. Iola got the run back in the sixth inning. Coleson Wiggin hit a single followed by a fielder’s choice by Ethan Sigg, which moved Wiggin to second base. Kohl Endicott batted Wiggin in on an error.
In the seventh inning, the Mustangs ran into trouble. With two outs and runners at the corners, Scheibmeir was brought into the game to get the final out. He induced a ground ball and Iola got the win.
Scheibmeir kept the ball for the championship game against Osawatomie.
Iola, as the home team, had a 1-2-3 first inning. At the plate, they took the lead. Faulhaber started Iola’s first at-bat with a single. He then stole second base. Scheibmeir followed with a single, pushing Faulhaber to third base.
Keanen Badders attempted to bunt, but popped out to the catcher, just getting under the ball. Wiggin hit Faulhaber in on a sacrifice fly. With Scheibmeir at second base, the Mustangs got aggressive. Sigg hit a single into center field and Scheibmeir was waved in to score, but was thrown out on a swiping tag by Osawatomie’s pitcher.
The score stayed 1-0 until the fifth inning. With a runner on second base and two outs, Osawatomie came through with an RBI-triple to tie the game.
But good pitching beats good hitting in high school baseball.
“Even in this game, the kid hit the triple and one pitch later we were out of the inning,” Taylor said. “That’s how you win big games like that. You can’t let one play ruin a whole inning, you can’t do it.”
To wit, the Mustangs didn’t let that triple ruin them, but answered back with a five-run inning.
“It started with the bottom of our lineup. The seven and eight [hitters] got on, nine bunted him over,” Taylor said. “They came out and like I said we didn’t get down. The bottom of our lineup settled down the top of our lineup this game. That’s how you win these big games.”
Garrett Wade and Brett Taylor each started the inning with singles. Ben Cooper, the nine hole hitter, bunted them over. With one out, both runners were in scoring position and it looked as if they would get the lead back.
Faulhaber came to the plate and hit a grounder to the third baseman. Wade, who was on third base, got into a run down between home and third base. He didn’t win and was tagged out. But, the distraction allowed Faulhaber to make it to second base and Taylor made it to third.
It was Scheibmeir’s turn. He grounded a ball to shortstop. Sheibmeir hustled down the line forcing the shortstop to make a hurried throw. It sailed into foul territory and both runners scored. Scheibmeir made it to second base on the error.
Badders made up for the popped out bunt and followed with a single. Ethan Tavarez, pinch running for Scheibmeir, came around to score on another errant throw by Osawatomie. Wiggin then reached first on another error by Osawatomie’s shortstop, bringing Badders in to score. Iola added one more run on what should have been a Sigg groundout to the pitcher. But, another ball was thrown away allowing Wiggin to score.
Iola led 6-1 after the inning.
In the sixth, Iola added one more insurance run.
With one out, Faulhaber grounded into a fielder’s choice but knocked in a run.
Scheibmeir came out for the seventh inning. Just like in game one, he closed out game two.
The celebration ensued.
“When we started, we thought we were going to be OK. We gradually got better and put together that six or seven game win streak,” Taylor said. “By the time we got here, we thought, ‘yeah, we should be going to state if we play the way we can.’ The kids did a great job and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Iola, now 14-4 overall, will travel to Topeka next Thursday for the Class 4A-II State Tournament.
Mustangs baseball returns to state after year absence
