PRATT — It’s not the outcome the Iola faithful was looking for, but the Post 15 Indians remain unbowed in their pursuit of a AA American Legion state championship.
Rainy weather forced the suspension of Iola’s state semifinal game against Sabetha Friday evening, with the Indians holding a slim 5-4 lead headed into the top of the seventh inning.
Game officials originally suspended the game for about an hour, hoping to resume later in the evening, before a second round of storms ended the night for everyone.
The teams’ coaches huddled with American Legion officials this morning, where it was announced the game will resume this afternoon at 1 p.m., with Iola coming to bat.
The stakes are high.
The winner will advance to the state championship game — originally scheduled for about 2:30 this afternoon, but certain to change because of the weather.
The loser must play again in the losers bracket final against an opponent to be determined. Hays TMP and Westmoreland-Rock Creek were to have played after the Iola-Sabetha game, but were never able to take the field.
“It’s not what we wanted, but we’re still in good shape,” Iola head coach Roland Weir said. “I would have loved to have seen us finish this game tonight.”
Iola broke a 4-4 deadlock on a broken play that resulted in Jarred Latta’s steal of home in the top of the sixth inning.
Latta led off the inning with a walk, advanced to third on a pair of wild pitches and was there when Drew Faulhaber walked with two out.
Faulhaber then started to steal second, stopped unexpectedly, and was caught between first and second base in a run-down.
But Latta effectively caught the attention of the Sabetha fielders long enough for Faulhaber to scramble back toward first. As the fielder chased Faulhaber, Latta zipped home without a throw.
“It was an odd play, but we’ll take it,” Weir said with a laugh.
The play was the latest in a tightly fought contest that featured three lead changes and a tie.
Levi Ashmore started the game with a single and stolen base. He scored on Mason Coons’ ground ball.
Tyler Clubine cranked out some offense in the third and fourth innings.
He doubled to lead off the third and scored on Trent Latta’s sacrifice fly to push Iola on top 2-0.
Sabetha broke through for three runs in the bottom of the third on two walks, a ground ball down the line that just eluded the grasp of third baseman Aaron Barclay and a single.
Clubine responded with a two-run double in the top of the fourth to drive in Barclay and Faulhaber, putting Iola back on top, 4-3.
“Tyler had a tremoundous night,” Weir said. “He had been struggling some offensively, but he really smacked a couple of big hits for us.”
A leadoff walk in the bottom of the frame led to Sabetha’s fourth run, on Thaine Allen’s infield single, tying the game until Iola’s sixth-inning rally.
“Mason got himself in trouble with some walks, but he’s such a competitor and never gave in,” Weir said. “He was able to work himself out of some jams.
“This is a good game,” Weir continued. “Sure, we wished we had a bigger lead, but Sabetha’s a good team.”
WEIR REMAINS confident regarding Iola’s chances, thanks to his team’s pitching performances, such as the one served up by Nathan Whitcomb in Thursday’s quarterfinal game against Concordia.
Whitcomb entered one of the biggest games of his life without his normal pinpoint control.
“I didn’t have a clean inning all night,” he said.
But, what he lacked in precision, Whitcomb more than made up for with some steely nerves, shutting down several scoring opportunities in a 7-0 win.
Whitcomb took the “bend, but not break” philosophy to the extreme.
Sure, Concordia had plenty of base runners.
The Blues had seven hits, while three reached on walks and one on an error.
Concordia batters came up 10 times with runners in scoring position. Ten times, they returned to their dugout without a hit.
Meanwhile, Iola’s aggressiveness on the base paths forced Concordia ace Nathan Gieber — the Kansas high school Class 4A pitcher of the year — to commit the game’s first key error.
After largely holding Iola in check through the first three innings, Gieber’s first sign of trouble came in the fourth, when Trent Latta led off with a double.
Latta’s large lead from second with Derrick Weir at bat forced an errant Gieber pick-off attempt.
Latta never hesitated as the ball trickled into shallow center field. He rounded third at the urging of assistant coach Sherman Ashmore and easily beat the throw home.
“Trent really sparked us, and Sherman was aggressive in sending him home,” Roland Weir said.
The sequence appeared to rattle the Concordia lefty.
“Our bats kind of exploded after that,” Weir said. “We started getting some better swings.”
Iola missed on another scoring chance in the fifth, when Ashmore’s line drive up the middle turned into a nifty 1-6-3 double play, but Latta opened the sixth with a single, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Derrick Weir’s base hit.
Then the floodgates opened.
Jarred Latta reached on a walk, Braden Larson singled for another run, and Whitcomb’s ground ball bounced past Concordia second baseman Jordan Mehl for an error. Faulhaber smacked an RBI single, as did Eric Heffern when his ground ball had a bad hop and wound up in left field. Ashmore’s grounder delivered the final run of the contest.
“We got a couple of lucky bounces, but we kept putting it to them,” Weir said. “We did a great job with our base running.”
THE FIRST inning, meanwhile, was a perfect illustration of how Whitcomb’s night went. Concordia’s Bowe Behymer reached on an error to lead off the frame, then advanced to second on Mehl’s base hit.
But Whitcomb induced a ground ball by Gieber for a force out before striking out the next two batters to end the threat.
A single and stolen base put a Concordia runner on second with one out in the second inning before Whitcomb squashed the rally with another ground ball and a strikeout. The same happened two innings later, as a Blues runner reached second. This time, Whitcomb got the strikeout for the second out, and a fly ball to end the threat.
The Blues a put runner on third in the fifth before Faulhaber’s nifty play at second on a ground ball by Gieber snuffed that scoring opportunity.
By the time Concordia loaded the bases in the sixth, few were surprised when Whitcomb slammed the door with another strikeout and a grounder.
Whitcomb finished his 111-pitch outing with nine strikeouts, but said his team’s defense was the key.
“I just pitched to contact, which is what has been preached to me all summer,” he said. “The defense bailed me out a couple of times.”
“Trent was a spark for us,” Whitcomb continued. “Everyone onethrough nine is capable of being a spark.”
“We knew coming in that Concordia had a great pitcher,” Weir said. “Hat’s off to them. They were able to keep getting guys on base, but Nathan did a tremendous job of working out of a couple of jams. Nathan has had a fantastic season thus far for us and he has us in good shape the rest of the tournament.”
In other tournament action Thursday, Hays TMP eliminated Wellington, 6-5, while Westmoreland-Rock Creek eliminated host Pratt, 10-2.
Concordia then was eliminated Friday with its 5-0 loss to Rock Creek, and Hays TMP sent Ellis, 6-5.
The losers bracket final will follow the conclusion of the Iola-Sabetha game.
The championship game will follow that, if Iola or Sabetha emerges from the losers bracket. Otherwise, the championship round, including a second championship game, if necessary, will begin at 10 a.m. Sunday.
Thursday’s results
Iola 7, Concordia 0
Iola AB R H BI
Levi Ashmore 4 0 0 1
Trent Latta 3 2 2 0
Mason Coons 4 0 0 0
Derrick Weir 4 1 1 1
Jarred Latta 3 1 2 0
Braden Larson 3 1 1 1
Aaron Barclay 2 0 0 0
Nathan Whitcomb 1 1 0 1
Drew Faulhaberr 3 1 1 1
Eric Heffern 3 0 2 1
TOTALS 30 7 9 6
Concordia AB R H BI
Bowe Behmymer 4 0 1 0
Jordan Mehl 4 0 1 0
Nathan Gieber 2 0 0 0
Braden Johnson 1 0 1 0
Skyler Hittle 3 0 0 0
Trevor Nordell 3 0 2 0
Trey Dubbert 3 0 0 0
Conner Eilert 2 0 1 0
Chanse Copple 3 0 0 0
Ryan Perkins 3 0 1 0
TOTALS 28 0 7 0
LOB-Iola 5, Condordia 10. 2B-Trent Latta. SB-Conner Eilert, Trrevord Nordell (2), Nathan Gieber.
Iola IP H R ER BB SO
Nathan Whitcomb 7 7 0 0 3 9
TOTALS 7 7 0 0 3 9
Concordia
Nathan Geiber 6 9 7 5 3 4
Braden Johnson 1 0 0 0 0 0
TOTALS 7 9 7 5 3 4
