HUMBOLDT — Some little-used pitchers produced big results Thursday, when the Iola A Indians American Legion squad turned to a cadre of pitchers who had pitched sparingly, if at all, in 2021.
All they did was shut down visiting Ottawa over both games of a doubleheader Thursday.
The Indians allowed two hits on the day — one in each game — in rolling to 14-0 and 4-1 victories.
And while the usual gang of suspects led a potent offensive attack, the name of the game was pitching, Indians head coach Bob Johnson said.
“We pitched Logan Page the first game,” Johnson said. “He’s young and hadn’t pitched for us yet.”
Page allowed a leadoff single in the first, and nothing else over his three shutout innings of work, while striking out five.
Then, with Iola up 14-0 after a 10-run third inning, Johnson turned to Rogan Weir, who pitched a 1-2-3 fourth inning to end the game. “He really pitched well.”
Getting the nod in Game 2 was Brandon McKarnin, who had been sidelined with a sore arm, but was cleared to pitch on Thursday.
“We wanted to get him some time,” Johnson said.
McKarnin pitched 3 1/3 shutout innings, allowing only a third-inning single, while striking out four.
Johnston then turned to Korbin Cloud in the fourth inning, after a pair of walks gave Ottawa its first true scoring chance of the night.
Cloud needed a single pitch to get two outs when Carter Hutton made a nifty catch on a sinking line drive that turned into an inning-ending double play.
“Korbin is pretty darned good,” Johnson said.
Iola’s offense was patiently potent in the first game.
Holden Barker blasted a run-scoring triple to get the offense going in the first inning. Trey Cloud walked, and Sommer followed with a two-run double. Trevor Church reached on an infield single before Sam Hull had the next big blow, a two-run triple to make it 5-0.
McKarnin drove home Hutton with a double to make it 6-0 in the second, and although the Indians stranded two runners in scoring position, they had little trouble putting the game away in the third, taking advantage of two errors and four straight walks to make it 10-0.
