PITTSBURG — The Iola Mustangs picked up a pair of momentum-building wins while on the road Friday against St. Mary’s Colgan.
After edging the Panthers in the opener 6-5, Iola benefitted from the long-ball in the finale in a 14-2 mercy-rule as the Mustangs ended the contest before the seventh inning.
“We put it out to a lot of teams in our area, and they were willing to play us,” Iola coach Chris Weide said. “It was exciting. This was the first time we played them in varsity and the girls really stepped up tonight.”
Although common in travel softball, sophomore pitcher Zoie Hesse threw both games of Friday’s doubleheader. In the opener, she tallied 10 strikeouts in a complete-game effort while allowing five walks, four hits and an earned run. She ended the second contest with four strikeouts over six innings while allowing three hits, three walks and an earned run.
“It was one of those things where she was throwing really well,” Weide said. “Me, Coach Bycroft and Coach Trey talked about it a bit. We thought about mixing it up, but if we go to regionals, and go to this, then we’re going to have to work on it a little bit.”
Following a scoreless opening frame, senior outfielder Kyndal Bycroft put Iola on the scoreboard with an RBI double, then fellow senior outfielder Alana Mader drove in Bycroft with an RBI double to give the Mustangs a 2-0 advantage.
“Reese got us going, and it all trickled down. She got the momentum going and it carried,” Mader said.
Senior catcher Reese Curry, Hesse and sophomore outfielder Brooklyn Holloway put Iola up 6-0 with a trio of RBIs in consecutive at-bats. Colgan rallied to within a run with two runs in the fifth inning and three runs in the seventh, but Holloway secured a fly ball to secure the victory.
“The momentum really helped us, once one person got it,” Bycroft said. “If we hit off her already, then we knew we could hit off her (again).”
After narrowly avoiding a comeback in the opener, the Mustangs busted the finale open with a five-run second inning and poured on seven more runs in the fourth and sixth inning for the early night.
Curry and Holloway gave Iola an early lead on RBI singles, but the momentum dramatically shifted when freshman designated hitter Addi Wacker cleared the right-field fence with her first career home run.
“I had two strikes on me so I knew I had to swing at anything close,” Wacker said. “I didn’t expect a home run. That’s my first home run. I was really surprised.”
After joining Wacker last February as the first and second women in Iola High School history to qualify for the state wrestling tournament, Hesse followed up Wacker’s home run with a homer of her own to give Iola a 7-1 advantage. Hesse ended the finale with a team-leading four RBIs, followed by Wacker with three.
Even then, Iola was not done.
“There are a lot of times I’m thinking, OK the top of our lineup really hasn’t done a whole heck of a lot, and the bottom of our lineup really stepped up,” Weide said. “There were several times tonight we got the RBIs we really needed. They’re doing a good job of getting on base for the top of the lineup too.”
Hesse added another run on an RBI single, then moments later gave Iola a 9-2 lead after reaching home on a wild pitch. A Bycroft RBI single put Iola in double digits by the end of the fifth inning. Another Bycroft RBI and multiple bases-loaded walks was all Iola needed to wrap up the regular season on top with a 17-6 record.
“We’re all excited (for Monday). We didn’t play well against Santa Fe, but I knew we still had the team to get it done,” Weide said. “That’s two good wins tonight. There were a lot of girls who were not feeling good tonight. I told them in the huddle they stepped up and did what it took to win.”
