The Iola Indians’ bats are hot for Wednesday’s opening game of the Kansas State Tournament in Topeka.
The Iola Indians AA American Legion baseball team cruised their way to a Zone AA Tournament title July 15-17 after outscoring their opponents in three games, 28-2. Much of the offensive firepower had been coming in the later innings and it took until the sixth inning for the Indians to pull away for the eight-run victory in the final game.
“I feel good. I think we can all say that as a team,” said the Indians’ Trey Sommer, adding that the two-week break will be a benefit. “Just resting and taking it easy will be good. Hopefully we can show up to Topeka, win our three, four games and maybe make a run at the AA or AAA state title and maybe earn a trip to nationals in Alabama.”
In the Zone AA Tournament, Iola’s Kaiden Barnett led the team offensively, driving in five runs while Sam Hull ripped six hits. Eli Smith also impressed on the mound, tossing a five-inning shutout on Saturday. Iola will rely on Smith and Nathan Louk as its main pitchers heading to the state tournament. 
“For the most part we start off slow and then we get it going. We’re kind of unstoppable once we get going like that,” said Indians’ center fielder TJ Taylor. “I feel like it’s always one or two hits before we really get going. If someone has a really big hit we just feed off that energy and just keep hitting, getting hit after hit.”
Iola’s Sommer discussed the American Legion season and how far the team has come. Because the team consists of players from different area high schools, the challenge is finding cohesiveness as a team.
“We struggled early on, the talent was always there, it was just a matter of putting it together because not all of us kids have actually played together. Us Humboldt kids, this is our first time being on this legion team with Iola, and all the kids on that senior team have been playing.”
Sommer was a part of the run barrage in the Zone Tournament, smacking in a run in the 10-0 drubbing of Winfield. He also explained that his Iola AA squad has been able to play AAA teams throughout the season which has helped step up the team’s level of play. Those AAA teams included Ottawa, Pittsburg and Topeka’s American Legion teams.
The Indians have talked numerous times about how having fun and playing baseball with their friends is what really makes these sorts of teams successful. It surely seems like a simple formula for winning at this level: more fun, more wins.
“Having fun is a big part of it, if you’re not having fun out there while you are playing then nothing is going to go well. I think once we started having fun we’ve all gotten really close,” said Sommer. “About midway through the season we started winning games, having fun and once that hit, that’s about when I realized we could have a nice state run.”
Taylor chimed in: “I feel like when you are having fun, you play better baseball,” he said. “We definitely have the most fun when we are hitting good.”
The Iola AA Indians will compete in the Kansas American Legion State baseball tournament in Topeka this week beginning on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
