The Iola A Indians came from behind to sweep Independence at home Tuesday night.
The Indians (10-6) were helped out in game one by a Drake Weir two-run single to center field to score the winning two runs and hang on for a 10-7 victory. In game two, Nick Bauer delivered the game-winning hit with a three-run single to right field for the 6-5 win.
“He’s (Bauer) been struggling but he finds ways to get on base,” Iola head coach Jason Bauer said. “He came up clutch today and hopefully that’s what it takes to get him rolling. I told him he needed to look the other way, the second baseman was playing up the middle.”
Game one — 10-7 win
Weir’s two-run single came in the bottom of the sixth inning to go ahead 8-7. Cole Mathes followed up with a two-run single for the 10-7 win.
Pitcher Grady Dougherty allowed seven runs through the first 5.2 innings, mainly due to defensive errors.
Lucas Maier tossed the final 1.1 frames and didn’t allow a hit while walking two.
“If we could just play some defense behind our pitchers, Grady and Easton could probably throw a complete game, but we’re averaging an error an inning,” said Bauer. “That’s just bad baseball.”
The Indians scored a run in the bottom of the first on a Blake Ellis RBI groundout to second base to bring home Mathes for the initial 1-0 lead.
Independence broke through in the top of the third when a single to left field plated two runs and put Iola down, 2-1. Indy then singled to first base to score another run and make it 3-1. The Cardinals scored on a wild pitch before an Indy batter was hit by a pitch for the 6-1 edge.
Jacob Harrington scored for Iola when he stole home on a double steal to make it a 6-2 game. Mathes then scored on an error to make it a 6-3 game followed by Ellis singling to center to bring in a score and make it a 6-4 game.
“I think we’re doing a good job of picking up when we can swipe a bag,” said Bauer. “That’s going to help us turn the corner and score some more runs because we don’t have a lot of power. We’re just getting good reads. We have to manufacture runs somehow.”
Indy reached on an error ground ball to third base in the top of the fourth to extend their lead to 7-4.
Iola made it a one-run game in the bottom of the fourth, beginning with Weir grounding out to third base to plate Bauer for the 7-5 score. Harrington then grounded out to shortstop which plated another run to bring the deficit to 7-6.
Two innings later, Weir came through with a two-run single to take the one-run advantage. Maier came on to pitch and the Indians won 8-7.
