SABETHA — They started at 8. Now, they’ve won state.
In a winner-take-all game on a picture-perfect Sunday morning, the 2012 Kansas American Legion AA Baseball State Championship was decided. On Somerset Park’s “field of dreams” in Sabetha, Iola AA Indians realized their dream.
The AA Indians defeated Hays-TMP Monarchs 6-2 Sunday to capture the state championship that eluded them a year ago. In their second straight AA state baseball tournament, the Indians faced the Monarchs three times in three days to win the title.
“Perfect,” was Jerrik Sigg’s one word to describe the Indians’ championship run. Sigg earned the state tournament’s batting title, going 9 of 18 in the team’s five tournament games. Sigg also was 2-1 on the mound, including two compete games.
“Dalton Smith came out and threw a heck of a game. He pounded the strike zone the whole game which was huge,” Sigg said. “Dalton kept the ball at the knees (of the batters) and let our defense work. Our whole defense was outstanding,”
Most of the players on the AA Indians have been playing together since they were 8 years old. Smith, who is a 2011 Yates Center High graduate, joined the group a bit later but has played on Iola teams for several years.
Smith got the starting nod from AA Indians’ head coach Mike Taylor for Sunday’s contest. The right-hander went the distance on the hill for the Indians, throwing a two-hitter. He walked one and hit one batter.
Smith struck out four Hays batters. He and the Iola defense retired the Monarchs in order in five of the seven innings, which included the last two frames.
The 2012 AA Indians handed Iola Leslie J. Campbell Post 15 its second AA championship. The other state championship was in 1988. Iola went to the 1983 and 1984 state tournament, finishing second in 1984 with Coach Taylor on the team as a player.
“It’s about time,” Coach Taylor said smiling. “We’ve played a lot of games like this and came up short over the years at different levels.
“I knew I was going to start Dalton by Thursday. On Friday night against Hays, I couldn’t make any right decisions and we still won, then Saturday we made a lot of good decisions and we didn’t play well.
“Today we played about as a perfect of a game as we can. Our defense is pretty good.”
It was Smith who got the offense started for Iola. He found himself all the way at second base when his high pop-up in the infield fell between Hays’ third baseman and pitcher.
Smith stole third and an errant throw on the play allowed him to score the game’s first run.
Iola struck for four runs in the third. Sigg drew a one-out walk and Drew Walden singled. The runners moved up on a wild pitch and a passed ball. Smith connected for a two-run single to center field.
