HUMBOLDT — The Iola AA Indians were swept by Pittsburg AAA Post 64 in the Kansas American Legion Super State in Humboldt Friday evening.
The Indians (29-8) finished off a monstrous season in unfamiliar fashion, first dropping a one-run game in the seventh inning, 3-2, and then being blanked at the plate in a 6-0 season-ending loss. Iola led for all of six innings in game one before Pittsburg tacked on three runs in the seventh to squeak out the win.
“It was a great season,” Iola head coach Ethan Tavarez said. “It’s hard to judge this game based off how our season went. We’re looking forward to coming back out here next year and playing in this same game and hopefully winning it next time.”
Game one — 3-2 loss
Iola controlled the game for six innings before the seventh arrived. Trey Sommer tossed a shutout and allowed only three hits through six innings on the mound while Kaiden Barnett and Rogan Weir each drove in a run by the fourth inning.
Sommer allowed one base runner to reach in each of the first two innings before sitting down Pittsburg 1-2-3 in the third. The most traffic Sommer allowed was in the top of the fifth when three Pittsburg runners got on base but were stranded in scoring position.
“Showing that we can play at their level, we’re a team they don’t want to mess with,” said Tavarez. “They’ve beat us more often than not which stinks but they’re always close games, we’re not getting run-ruled. It sucks losing but there’s a lot of things the guys learned this summer.”
Weir put Iola ahead in the bottom of the third when he sent a sacrifice fly to right field to score pinch-runner Henry White for the 1-0 lead.
The Indians scored again one inning later when Barnett singled to right field to plate Sam Hull for the 2-0 Iola advantage.
The seventh inning was Pittsburg’s. Kaleb Scales started the scoring with a triple to center field to bring home Ethan Rhodes and trim Iola’s lead to 2-1. Trevor Amershek then grounded into an error to plate Scales to knot the score 2-2.
“We started out the first game great. I thought we were fired up. I thought we had it won,” Tavarez said. “Pittsburg is a team that can come back from being down. They were down 7-0 to Ottawa in the state tournament and came back and won.”
Logan Page pitched the seventh for Iola and took the loss, allowing three runs on two hits in one inning.
Pittsburg went ahead three batters later when Connor Vanbecelaere singled to right field to bring around Amershek to come ahead 3-2.
Iola was sat down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh.
Game 2 — 6-0 loss
