EMPORIA — Some sterling pitching and a late rally helped Iola’s Senior American Legion squad pull away for a 7-2 victory Tuesday against Emporia’s Midwest Elite.
Alas, the Indians’ offense dried up after a quick start in Tuesday’s nightcap as the Midwest Elite rallied for a 6-5 victory.
The split puts Iola at 11-8 on the season with a wood bat tournament slated for this weekend in Chanute to wrap up the regular season.
The Indians will remain idle after that until the Class A American Legion Tournament unfolds July 24-26 in Pittsburg.
Ty Shaughnessy stayed ahead of the Midwest Elite batters throughout his 4.1 innings of work in Tuesday’s opener.
He struck out five and walked one, while allowing just one hit as Iola forged ahead to a 3-2 lead after six innings.
Ty Lord’s one-out double started Iola’s seventh-inning rally. He scored on an error after which Kale Pratt doubled home Dalton Lingenfelter to make it 5-2. Austin Crooks was next with an RBI single. Shaughnessy then scampered home on a wild pitch.
A hit batter and single gave Midwest Elite a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, but Iola scored the equalizer in the second when Crooks singled, stole second and scored on an error.
Lingenfelter stole home in the third to give Iola a 2-1 lead before Crooks singled and scored on a Broderick Peters single in the fourth.
Iola reliever Thomas Allee worked out of a sixth-inning jam after a single, double and error closed the gap to 3-2 with the tying run on third.
Allee ended the threat on a pair of pop flies.
Crooks paced the offense with three singles and two runs scored with an RBI. Henry White, Pratt and Lord each had doubles, while Lingenfelter, Peters and Broden Emerson collected singles. Allee scattered three hits over 2.2 innings of relief, while striking out two and not walking anybody.
CROOKS kept the fun going in the nightcap, with an RBI single to score Lingenfelter before Peters drew a bases-loaded walk to bring Shaughnessy home for a 2-0 lead.
Midwest Elite pushed across single runs in both the first and second innings to even the score before Brock Michael put Iola back on top with a two-run single in the third.
But while the Indians continued to put runners on base — Iola had baserunners in every inning — getting those runs across became problematic in the middle innings.
Midwest Elite evened the score in the fourth and took a 6-4 lead after five.
