HUMBOLDT — The Iola AA Indians swept their way to a Zone AA Championship title over the weekend after defeating Winfield on Friday and then knocking off Parsons twice on Saturday and Sunday.
The American Legion team posted 28 runs on the board through the three games which included a 10-0 blowout over Winfield on Friday and a 10-2 drubbing of Parsons on Sunday. Overall on the weekend, Indian Sam Hull knocked six hits to lead his team and Kaiden Barnett drove in a team-high five runs. Barnett most likely could have knocked in more but was intentionally walked in the final game by Parsons.
The winning pitchers for the Iola AA Senior Indians were Nathan Louk on Friday and Sunday and Eli Smith on Saturday. The most impressive performance on the mound was Smith’s Saturday outing in which he tossed a complete-game five-inning shutout allowing only four hits to Parsons.
On Friday night, Iola’s AA squad first struck in the top of the third inning when Cooper Riley smacked a hard ground ball single to left field. The Indians drove in five more runs including a Louk two-run single to right field to give his Iola team a 6-0 advantage.
Iola AA struck again with the remainder of their four runs in the top of the fifth. Barnett smacked a two-run single to left. Riley then ripped an RBI double to left field before Trey Sommer hit an RBI groundout. The umpires then called the game after the fifth due to the run-limit.
Game two of the weekend featured the big shutout by Smith but also some solid offensive performances from Louk and Barnett. Barnett began the scoring for the Indians, knocking an RBI groundout before Riley hit a two-run single to take a 3-0 lead in the third inning.
Barnett knocked an RBI single his next at bat as well as a sacrifice fly for the eighth and final run of the ballgame in the bottom of the fifth. Sommer hit his second RBI of the weekend on a single to center field before Louk singled in the fifth for the 7-0 lead.
Sunday’s game was crucial for the Iola AA seniors as it meant if they won the first game of the day they would be crowned the champions of the Zone AA Tournament. The first few innings of the game didn’t look hopeful for the Indians as they got behind early in the third, 2-0. That was due to a Parsons RBI groundout as well as an RBI single.
Barnett helped his Iola AA Indians squad get on the board with an RBI double to left field which cut the deficit and made it a 2-1 ballgame. Iola knotted it up in the sixth on a TJ Taylor RBI single for the 2-2 score.
The rest of the eight Indians runs also came in the sixth inning. Hull singled for the next run with Indians on first and third for the 3-2 edge. Three batters later, Drake DeLaTorre ripped an RBI single to left for the 4-2 lead before Hull scored on a wild pitch for the 5-2 advantage.
The other RBIs came off the bats of Sommer on a single to left for the 7-2 lead and a Trenton Jones single to second base to bring home Riley for the 10-2 final.
The Iola AA Indians dominated on the weekend and grabbed the Zone AA Tournament championship title with ease.
