The Iola High baseball team seemed to let Friday’s blustery weather get the best of them in a 13-7 home loss to Chanute.
Iola head coach Levi Ashmore said the loss stung. “The things we have to do to beat a good team, win games and execute, we just didn’t do.”
A Chanute runner scored for the 3-1 lead on a wild pitch in the top of the second inning. The Blue Comets also scored on a routine fly ball to left field that fell to the ground.
Korbin Cloud started at pitcher for Iola. Cloud was banged up through the first couple of innings, allowing seven runs through the first two frames. Chanute then added on six runs in the top of the seventh for a 13-6 advantage.
“We beat ourselves. That’s been the talk all year, if we show up and play our game, play hard and execute we’ll be fine but we didn’t do that today,” Ashmore said. “Pitchers didn’t help themselves much early. Later on, Korbin settled in and did some things well.”
The Mustangs plated one run in the bottom of the first and another run in the third to cut into the deficit and make it a 7-2 game.
The closest the Mustangs would come was in the bottom of the fourth when Tre Wilson ripped an RBI groundout to first to make it a 7-2 game. Grady Dougherty then smacked a two-run double to center and later scored on a wild pitch for the 7-5 deficit.
“I liked our fight early on when we got down and came back. We gave ourselves a chance,” Ashmore said. “But then we didn’t take advantage of that opportunity. We missed some signs, didn’t get bunts down. We scratched and clawed to make it a one-run game late.”
Brandon McKarnin pitched the seventh inning in relief and gave up six runs on five hits and walked one while striking out another.
Chanute was led at the plate by Parker Manly, Larsen Koester, Brax Peter and Meisch driving in two runs.
Dougherty drove in a team-high two runs for Iola while Landon Weide, Jarrett Herrmann and Wilson each drove in one run. Weide knocked a team-high three hits while Herrmann and Dougherty each smacked two hits.
Iola hits the road to take on Prairie View on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.
