American Legion: Post 15 Iola Indians
For the first time in a while, the Post 15 Iola Indians ran into some adversity.
Iola opened its season with a rocky 2-2 start in its home tournament but after that, theyve skated by, winning 10 straight games, most by double digits.
On Friday, Iola had to dig deep in the opening game of the Fort Scott tournament and fell short, falling to the Kansas Indians of Fort Scott 7-0 before beating the Arkansas Express out of Jonesboro, Ark. 13-6 at the LaRoche Baseball Complex.
Iola stands at 13-3 after the split.
In the opening game, getting on base was not a problem for Iola.
Twelve different guys got on and out of those 12, eight made it to scoring position. But that last 90 feet and home plate proved evasive; none of them had an opportunity to round third and score.
Weve talked to them all summer long about how important is it to do the little things, head coach Levi Ashmore said. Against bad teams, you can just go out there and just swing and swing and swing and do your thing. But when you play good teams like this you have to get baserunners home to have a chance. You have to do things like taking advantage of two-out hits. Its really the little things.
Meanwhile, starter Daylon Splane held strong on the mound, pitching for five innings, four of which were scoreless.
He did a really good job, Ashmore said. We were trying to save (Derek Bycroft) for a little later in the tournament. Daylon gave us a chance to win. This loss isnt on him or the defense at all. He was sharp and what we needed through most of the game.
Splane slipped up in the bottom of the fourth after a crucial strike three to end the inning was left uncalled. The next batter hit in two runs and gave the Kansas Indians the first lead of the day.
Two innings later, Splane started to labor and loaded the bases before being replaced by Cal Leonard. Leonard allowed four to score before Iola got out of the inning.
The Indians managed to get runners on first and second with two outs in the top of the seventh but like the rest of the game, could not get them over the hump to score.
The biggest thing I saw today is we need to be the same way when were down a couple runs that we are when were up, Ashmore said. We cant have good attitudes when things are going well and then crawl in a hole when things start to get bad. I want to see guys step up when we face adversity.
Scoring was not a problem in game two as Iola pushed its lead to 12-3 in the third but the Indians were unable to get that crucial final run to end the game on a run-rule. The Indians were outscored 3-1 in the final three innings but held off the Express enough to win.
Ethan Tavarez started things off and was relieved by Bycroft and Isaac Vink. Individual stats for both games were unavailable.
As of press time, both the opponents and game times were not set for days two and three of the tournament but the Indians will definitely play in Fort Scott again today and possibly again on Sunday.
