HUMBOLDT — Just days after their respective high school seasons ended, a group of area baseball standouts took the field for their first summer games of the year Wednesday.
The Iola A American Legion Indians, featuring underclassmen from Iola, Humboldt and Crest high schools, hosted Pittsburg for a doubleheader at the Humboldt Sports Complex.
The Indians played well in all phases in the opener behind starter Trevor Church’s four shutout innings in an 8-1 victory.
Iola’s defense wobbled a bit in the second game, but the Indians still made things interesting, making up a 7-2 deficit before falling, 12-8.
“We have a good group, a lot of kids who have played together for seven or eight years,” head coach Bob Johnson said. “A lot of them have played on traveling teams together.
“We have a good balance of older and younger kids.”
“I’m excited to coach them,” he continued. “I’m working with some good coaches and good parents. It’s going to be a fun summer.”
As an aside, four of the players — Church, Holden Barker, Gavin Page and Trey Sommer — earned all-league recognition during the high school baseball season.
Church, who also learned earlier this week of his inclusion to the all-state baseball team for Class 1A with the Lancers, struck out six and allowed two hits over four shutout innings before exiting after nearing his 60-pitch limit.
Iolan Korbin Cloud came on in relief, and narrowly missed completing the shutout. The score was 8-0 when Pittsburg scored its only run with two outs in the top of the seventh.
Cloud allowed two hits over his three innings of work with three strikeouts.
Page and Jarrett Herrmann got the offense started with back-to-back singles in the bottom of the third. They moved up on Brandon McKarnin’s ground ball, before Page scored on an error on Pittsburg’s pitcher.
Barker ripped a line drive single to right to score Herrmann for a 2-0 lead.
Page singled, Herrmann walked and Mc-Karnin singled to start the fifth. Page scored on a wild pitch, and Mc-Karnin’s single drove in Herrmann to make it 4-0. Carter Hutton’s ground ball allowed McKarnin to score for a 5-0 advantage.
Page, who went 3-for-4 on the day, tripled in Sam Hull and Cloud. He then came around to score on McKarnin’s RBI grounder to cap Iola’s scoring.
