OTTAWA — Corey Taylor was due. Iola AA Indians’ clean-up hitter hadn’t hit well against Ottawa in the six previous games this summer. He had just one RBI.
But the first-baseman unloaded on a pitch in the second inning Wednesday night for a three-run home run. Taylor’s only hit of the game put the Indians up 6-0 and that’s all they needed.
Iola American Legion Post 15’s AA Indians opened the 2011 Kansas American Legion AA Baseball State Tournament with a 6-2 victory over the tournament’s host team. In the other three first-round games, Pratt rolled over Norton 31-0, Clifton-Clyde edged Doniphan County 8-6 and Seneca shut out Baldwin 8-0.
The Indians (36-12) play Seneca at 8:30 tonight in the winners bracket semifinals. Pratt takes on Clifton-Clyde at 6 o’clock in the other semifinal. The winners play at 6 p.m. Friday and the losers of the semifinal games drop to the losers bracket on Friday.
In the losers bracket, Norton played Doniphan County at 10 this morning followed by Baldwin playing Ottawa at 12:30. There are three losers bracket games at 10 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Friday.
The losers bracket final is at 10 a.m. Saturday. The state tournament championship game is at 12:30 p.m. Saturday and if a second championship game is necessary it will be at noon Sunday.
All games in the double-elimination state tournament are played on Harvey Drake Field at Ottawa’s Orliss Cox Sports Complex.
Iola scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning Wednesday. Levi Ashmore led off with a base hit and Dalton Smith was hit by a pitch. With one out, Taylor drew a walk, then hot-hitting Ryan Latta laced a two-run single and Taylor scored on a wild pitch.
After Taylor cranked out his home run with Ashmore and Smith on base, the 6-0 lead was enough behind the pitching of Ethan Ericson. Ericson had to pitch out of trouble several times as Ottawa stranded 10 base runners in the seven-inning contest.
Ottawa’s Conner Goedert, who was the losing pitcher, hit a solo home run in the third. Ottawa produced a run in the seventh.
Ericson gave up four hits in the game, issued seven walks and hit three batters. Ericson struck out seven and only worked one 1-2-3 inning — the sixth. Goedert retired the last 13 batters he faced after giving up six runs on five hits in the first two innings.
The other hits in the game for Iola were a single by Drew Walden and a double by Ashmore.
Indians open state tourney with victory
