CHANUTE — The American Legion Post 15 Indians held their own against the larger Chanute Post 170 but failed to come away with a win following an 9-6, 8-2 sweep Friday night.
Despite having all-state Iola graduate and Neosho Community College red-shirt freshman Grady Dougherty in tow, they suffered from a pair of fourth-inning flops as their record dropped to 3-5.
“There is a lot we need to work on,” Iola coach T.J. Taylor said. “Iola is built on pitching and defense. The past few games, we’ve struggled with pitching and defense.”
Starter Kale Pratt took the loss despite his team-leading four strikeouts over 5 ⅔ innings. He allowed nine runs on seven hits and four walks. Those stats are a bit misleading. All but two of those nine runs were earned runs. The majority of Chanute’s six-run, fourth-inning production came as a result of errors.
“It’s good to know exactly what we need to work on,” Coach Taylor said. “It makes it easy on me to plan practices and hopefully we can get better moving forward.”
IOLA JUMPED out to an early lead after Pratt reached home on a wild pitch. The next at-bat, Brock Michael’s RBI single, gave the Indians a 2-1 lead. A Pratt RBI grounder in the third, a Michael RBI bunt in the fourth and an RBI grounder by outfielder Dalton Lingenfelter extended the Indians’ lead to 5-1.
Iola imploded in the fourth inning, when Chanute scored six of eight unanswered runs.
A Pratt RBI double pulled the Indians within three runs in the seventh, but a subsequent flyout and a ground out ended the contest.
Pratt had a team-leading two RBIs while tying Michael and outfielder Henry White for the team lead in hits with two each. Third baseman Thomas Allee, Broderick Peters, shortstop Ty Shaughnessy and Lingenfelter had one hit each. Broden Emerson came in to relieve Pratt in the sixth inning and closed out the contest by striking out Chanute’s final batter.
In the nightcap, Post 170 showed their mettle. The Indians cut Chanute’s three-run lead to a run in the third inning off RBI singles by Pratt and Michael.
Another five-run fourth inning by Chanute proved too costly to overcome.
Marmaton Valley graduate Dominic Smith pitches while returning from a one-year hiatus from the mound Friday.
Starting pitcher Lingenfelter took the loss, allowing three runs on two hits and three walks. Reliever Dominic Smith returned from a one-year pitching hiatus to tally the Indians’ only strikeouts while pitching a scoreless 1 2/3 innings. Michael and Pratt tied for the team lead in RBIs with one each. Lingenfelter led in hits while successful in two of three at-bats.
“We have to go back to the drawing board and work on some stuff,” Taylor said. “We need to get a few more practices under our belt with everyone there. We’ll continue forward.”
The Indians return to the diamond for a doubleheader Wednesday against the winless Garnett Muddogs. First pitch at Alumni Park is 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. for the nightcap.
“We’re losing a lot of focus out here, and I’m going to have a talk with the boys about the mental side of the game. Hopefully that will help them,” Coach Taylor said.
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