BURLINGTON — Big third innings turned into big trouble for Iola High’s Mustang baseball team Thursday.
Host Burlington did all of its damage in the first game of their doubleheader with a six-run third inning to win, 6-0.
Then, the Wildcats erupted for eight runs in the third inning of game two, cruising to a 14-7 win.
The setbacks dropped Iola’s record to 2-3 on the season. The Mustangs wrapped up the week’s schedule at Chanute Friday for a single game, but that contest was not complete by press time.
The Mustangs missed out on taking an early lead in the opener. Jase Herrmann led off the second with a double, but was thrown out at third on a ground ball. A walk put runners on first and second, but Tre Wilson’s line drive up the middle was snared by Burlington’s shortstop, leading to an inning-ending double play.
But after allowing just one hit through the first two innings, Iola’s Korbin Cloud ran into trouble in the third.
After runners reached second and third with nobody out, Cloud induced an infield pop-up and a strikeout.
But just when it looked like Cloud was going to wiggle off the hook, an infield ground ball turned into a run when the Mustangs could not record an out. A two-run double and RBI single followed. A two-run error capped the scoring at 6-0.
Iola put two runners on base in the fifth but came up empty, and then loaded the bases in the sixth with nobody out, but a strikeout and two pop flies ended the threat.
Cloud scattered six hits over five innings with six strikeouts. Grady Dougherty came on in relief, striking out two. He did not allow a hit in his inning of work.
Mac Leonard led the offense with a single and double. Weide and Herrrmann also doubled. Dougherty chipped in with a single.
IOLA got a quick jump in the second game. Cloud singled with one out and scored on Dougherty’s two-out double.
But Burlington responded quickly, scoring twice in the bottom of the first to take the lead.
The third inning started with a pair of singles, two hit batters and two Mustang fielding errors, and suddenly, Burlington was on top, 5-1, before Iola recorded the first out of the frame.
Landon Weide sparked a comeback by driving in Nick Bauer with a fifth-inning single. Wilson’s double scored two, paring the gap even further, 10-4. Dougherty and Hesse added run-scoring singles, and Iola was back in it, 10-6.
Wilson’s solo home run pushed across Iola’s final run in the top of the seventh.
