TOPEKA — The Iola Mustangs’ 8-and-under baseball team wrapped up its season in style by capturing the gold medal at the Kansas Sunflower State Games in Topeka last weekend.
The games represented the last time the team was able to play machine pitch baseball and they were able to play at the Bettis Sports Complex on turf fields, which was an exciting opportunity for the boys.
The Mustangs were coming off of a state championship victory just two weekends ago, but in the Sunflower Games the team faced an entirely new slate of teams.
Iola cruised to a pair of quick wins by topping the Coffey County Mudcats 16-0 and the Lawrence Venom 18-0.
“It was nice to witness them play that hard to kick off the tournament,” Iola coach Jeff White said. “We could just tell that they wanted it from the get-go.”
With the playoffs beginning, the top-seeded Mustangs had a rematch with the Mudcats and again they cruised to a lopsided win. They won 14-4.
In the semifinals, they punched their ticket to the championship game by beating the Topeka Titans, 14-3.
In the championship game, the Mustangs were finally challenged.
The Carbondale Bombers jumped out to an 8-6 lead in the third inning, but White was confident in his team as they came to bat.
“The boys huddled up between innings and you could just tell from the look in their eyes that something big was going to happen,” White said.
The Mustangs scored six runs in the inning and took a 12-8 lead. They added four more runs in the fifth inning and held on for a 16-13 win to claim the gold medal at the Sunflower Games.
The performance capped the team’s big season that also saw them claim a state title.
