HUMBOLDT — Iola wasn’t about to go down without a fight.
After a 3-0 loss to Silver Lake in their opening game of the AA American Legion Zone Tournament Friday, Iola’s Post 15 Indians responded with a wallop, shutting out Wamego 8-0 on Saturday to earn a rematch with Silver Lake on Sunday.
Needing to win twice to win the tournament crown and advance to state, Iola continued its onslaught, rolling to an 8-2 victory to set up a second, winner-take-all contest between the two teams.
The Indians fell behind the 8-ball, trailing 4-0 and 7-3 before rallying.
Alas, the Indians could not come up with the final salvo, closing to within 7-5 but no closer.
The 7-5 defeat in the Zone championship ended Iola’s season at 24-7. Silver Lake advances to the AA State Tournament set for July 28-31 in Pittsburg.
“These were probably two of the top teams in the state having to battle for one spot at state,” Iola head coach John Taylor said. “They’re a great team; we’re a great team. We just came up a little short.”
Silver Lake took early advantage of a pair of Indian fielding errors in both the first and second innings to race to a 4-0 lead.
“That’s just part of baseball,” Taylor said.
Iola stranded a pair of runners in the third before taking advantage of Silver Lake’s only miscue of the game, a throwing error with runners on first and second, allowing courtesy runner Aiden Jones to score. Dillon Bycroft then blasted a 1-1 pitch to the wall for a two-run double, closing the deficit to 4-3.
Silver Lake’s Kaden Walker responded with a two-run double in the top of the fifth to re-establish a three-run lead. Another run came across on an infield single, in which Iola’s Noah Ashmore narrowly missed out on a spectacular play from short, in which he dove to his right to snare the ball, then threw while falling to first. His throw arrived a flash after the runner crossed the bag.
It didn’t take long for Iola to respond.
Nathan Louk, Ryker Curry, Bradyn Cole and Bycroft hit consecutive singles to lead off the top of the fifth, closing the gap to 7-4. TJ Taylor smacked a sacrifice fly two batters later before Silver Lake’s Mason Schartz got out of the jam with a ground out.
Iola had two other chances to even the score. Louk walked with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, but Ryker’s hard grounder down the right field line was snared by the Silver Lake first baseman, who stepped on the bag simultaneously for the out.
The final salvo came with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Drake DeLaTorre walked on four pitches before TJ Taylor lined a single to center.
