Iola and Burlington are separated by 39 miles on the map, but the two communities and schools share a lot of similarities, making for a natural rivalry.
At Riverside Park, that rivalry was very evident as the two communities’ American Legion teams faced off.
“When you know them so well, you really want to compete well and strike them out or get a hit off them or whatever is happening when you face them,” Iola pitcher/infielder Derek Bycroft said. “Whenever you know the other team, you want to try to do better than you do normally.”
Burlington took full advantage of Iola’s mistakes in the opening game of the doubleheader and handed Iola a 12-1 loss. Indian pitchers Isaac Vink and Daylon Splane each struggled with command and combined to walk seven batters in the game.
“I told the boys, it was a 1-1 game in the fourth inning and it just got away from us,” Iola coach Rick Vink said. “I told them, we are where we are for zone right now, this game does not matter except that we need to compete, we have to let them know that they played a ballgame and we can grow up a lot in between these games.
“And we responded, we got and didn’t quit, we fought back and played a good ball game.”
In the second game — despite already having the No. 2 seed in Zone 4 locked up — Iola wanted to avoid surrendering the sweep to Burlington. To avoid the sweep they sent their ace Bycroft to the bump.
“I had missed the games against this team a while back and lost both so I was really determined to come out and throw strikes against this team and see what I could do to help the team and try and get a win,” Bycroft said.
Bycroft was coming a workman-like domination of Osawatomie last Wednesday and took the mound with plenty of confidence.
It showed in the first inning as he quickly retired the first three batters he saw 1-2-3.
The second frame was a struggle for the young Indian’s right-hander. He surrendered three runs and Iola fell behind 3-0.
The offense responded in support of their leader.
Four straight batters reach base to begin the bottom of the second inning and Lance Daniels notched a RBI single to center field to put the team on the board. Justice Pugh followed Daniels’ at-bat with a RBI on a fielder’s choice.
That brought up the top of the order and Daylon Splane, who reached on a Burlington error to tie the game at three.
Bycroft helped himself out with a RBI single and after two innings, Iola had a 4-3 lead.
