Iola American Legion Post 15’s AA Indians made the most of playing a home this summer. They only had eight games scheduled on the home field.
With a sweep of Chanute Post 170 Thursday night, the Iola AA Indians wrapped up the regular season with an unblemished mark at home. Iola had six wins on its home field — the Allen Community College Red Devil Field — plus one rain-out.
The AA Indians were trying to reschedule with Ottawa but the teams couldn’t find a date to do so.
Iola AA improved to 27-2 on the season. It did that by defeating Chanute 9-1 and 1-0 Thursday.
One big inning powered Iola to its 9-1 victory in the opener. The Indians scored eight runs on eight hits in the third inning.
Hits were almost nil in the second game.
Corey Taylor, Mason Coons and Drew Walden combined to throw a no-hitter for Iola. The Indians beat Chanute 1-0 getting just one hit off of Chanute pitcher Sam Son.
The Indians scored the only run of the nightcap in the first inning. Back-to-back errors by Chanute had Levi Ashmore and Clint Heffern on base for Iola.
Ashmore had stolen second and scored on the error which allowed Heffern to reach. Heffern was caught trying to steal second.
The lone hit in the game came with two out in the first for Iola. Walden tripled but was stranded.
Taylor worked two innings of scoreless and hitless baseball. He did hit one batter and strikeout one.
Coons threw the next two hitless and scoreless innings for Iola. He issued one walk and struck out three batters. Walden came on in the fifth, hit the first batter he faced then Iola turned a 6-4-3 double play and Walden struck out a batter to end the game.
“We’re playing well as a team, especially defensively. Our hitting hasn’t been what we really want but we’ve found ways to score runs,” said Mike Taylor, AA Indians head coach.
“We are where we need to be going into the next couple weeks. Our pitching has been outstanding no matter who has pitched for us and we’re going to need all of our kids who pitch for the league and zone tournaments.”
In the opening game Thursday, the Indian offense finally woke up in the third down 1-0. Chanute scored a run in the top of the inning.
