HUMBOLDT — The Iola AA American Legion baseball team used a couple of over-the-fence home runs to sweep a doubleheader against Emporia on Monday night at the Humboldt Sports Complex. The pair of home runs came in separate games off the same bat of Kaiden Barnett. Both homers were rocketed to left field. The second one came with the bases loaded for a grand slam. Iola knocked off Emporia 6-5 and 12-7. They stand at 14-9 for the season.
The opening game ended with a walk-off single up the middle of the infield delivered by Eli Smith to bring home Barnett for the 6-5 Iola victory.
The game began with scoring in the top of the first inning when Emporia reached and scored on a fly ball error to the second baseman. It took until the bottom of the third inning for the Iola team to get on the board as the man of the day in Barnett smacked a sacrifice fly to center field to bring home Evan Lucke from third base. Only one batter later, cleanup hitter Cooper Riley ripped an RBI single to left field to plate Nathan Louk and give Iola the 2-1 advantage heading to the fourth.
In the top of the fourth inning Emporia was able to get another runner across to knot the ballgame up but then Barnett smashed a three-run blast to left field in the bottom of the fifth for the three-run Iola lead, 5-2. Barnett was greeted at home plate by his teammates.
However, in the very next half inning Emporia used an RBI single to right field and a two-run single to center to bring the game back to a tie with just over an inning remaining. That was before Smith came through for his walk-off single up the middle to send the Iola fans home happy.
A couple Iola pitchers were used in game one. Ashton Hesse tossed five innings of two-run and three-hit baseball before Barnett came on in relief to throw two innings allowing three runs and striking out five.
The second game saw much more offensive firepower from both dugouts. Barnett knocked in six runs for Iola which included his third-inning grand slam. The arms seemed more tired in the latter game. Emporia’s starting pitcher served up 12 runs in only 2.2 innings and Louk allowed four runs through his 1.1 inning of work for Iola.
Barnett knocked in a two-run single in the bottom of the second. Six other Iola batters knocked in runs of their own including a Louk single to right while Smith’s ground ball was misplayed for an error to help the home team take the 8-2 lead early in the second.
The closest Emporia got to knotting the game was when a Louk wild pitch brought a runner home from third and thinned the Emporia deficit to 8-6. Barnett finished at the plate a perfect 6-for-6.
The Iola AA American Legion team will wrap up their season at the Senior AA Zone Tournament in Topeka this weekend.
