Some effective pitching from Eli Smith gave Iola’s AA American Legion team a hard-earned split Tuesday.
Smith shut down visiting Ottawa Post 60 on four hits as the Indians pulled in a 3-0 victory.
The win came after Iola’s comeback attempt in the opener fell short in a 6-4 defeat.
The split puts the Indians at 7-6 with Iola slated to head to Overbrook Wednesday evening (Results were unavailable by press deadlines.)
Smith stymied a pair of Ottawa scoring chances in the early innings to preserve the shutout. He threw out a runner at the plate to end the top of the third and then struck out an Ottawa batter to end the fourth with two runners on base.
Catcher Carter Hutton ended the night by throwing out an Ottawa runner attempting to steal second base with two outs in the top of the fifth.
Meanwhile, Iola’s offense did just enough to give Smith the lead in the bottom of the second.
Cooper Riley walked, TJ Taylor singled and Smith walked to load the bases with one out. Trent Jones drove home Riley and Taylor on a fielder’s choice for a 2-0 advantage.
Kaiden Barnett and Taylor singled with one out in the fourth before Smith was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Trent Jones, whose sacrifice fly to center made it 3-0.
Taylor paced the offense with a pair of singles. Gavin Page and Barnett also singled.
BOTH TEAMS threatened to score but couldn’t in the early goings of Game 1.
Iola pitcher Trey Sommer wiggled off the hook after Ottawa put a runner on third with nobody out in the first, but Iola came up dry after Drake DeLaTorre and Hutton singled in the bottom half of the inning.
A nifty double play by Page, Nathan Louk and Riley thwarted another potential Ottawa rally in the top of the third, but a leadoff walk, throwing error and wild pitch spelled doom for Iola in the fifth. Ottawa wound up scoring four runs on a single hit in the inning to take control.
Still, Iola didn’t go down without a fight.
Hutton and Riley singled with one out in the bottom of the sixth before Sommer reached on an error to plate courtesy runner Ashton Hesse. Taylor followed two batters later with a two-run single to cut Iola’s deficit to 4-3.
