TOPEKA — The Comeback Kids almost finished one of their patented rallies once again Saturday.
Alas, the AA American Legion state champion Iola Indians came up just short after slicing a four-run deficit to one in the seventh and final inning. The rally ended with the tying run on first base as Iola bowed out to the AAA Pittsburg Patriots, 7-6. The loss, in the Senior American Legion State Tournament, ends Iola’s chances at advancing to nationals.
“Growth is a huge thing because a lot of them didn’t know each other at the beginning of the year,” said Iola head coach John Taylor. “We had growth as a team, cohesiveness, and once they came together it was amazing. Every game they played they just made it fun for me as a coach.”
That cohesiveness culminated Friday, when Iola emerged from an 8-1 deficit to Hiawatha to win, 10-8, thus securing the AA state championship.
In Saturday’s tournament — which featured the top two AA and AAA squads in a four-team tournament — Iola trailed 7-3 going into the seventh.
Sam Hull drove in a run with a groundout, and Carter Hutton’s ground ball turned into a two-run error, making it 7-6 with one out.
But Pittsburg’s pitchers ended the rally with Hutton still on first.
Hull helped begin the day with a bang for Iola, driving in two runs on an RBI double to right field to plate TJ Taylor and Nathan Louk for the early 2-0 advantage.
“I think that was actually huge for our confidence,” Taylor said. “Getting those first two runs I think they realized this is a baseball game anybody can win and why can’t it be us? They started believing and it was huge.”
Pittsburg tied the game in the bottom of the second. A ground ball error to third base allowed one runner to score. Then a sacrifice-fly at the next at-bat allowed one more run to knot the score at 2-2.
Hull then came through again in the third inning when he grounded into a fielder’s choice to second base to bring home Taylor for the one run lead, 3-2
“Sam is a special talent. He’s been a huge pick-up for us. At the beginning of the year he struggled hitting off-speed pitches, but he’s taken our coaching all year long and it’s amazing by the end of the year how well he hits the ball. I think he had four or five RBIs in this game alone.”
In the bottom of the third, Pittsburg drove in three runs on an RBI double to right field for the 5-3 lead. Pittsburg brought in one more run across in the bottom of the fourth when Louk hit a batter with the bases loaded for the 6-3 Pittsburg edge heading into the fifth.
Indians relief pitcher Kaiden Barnett came on with one out in the fourth inning and worked the final 2.2 innings allowing only one run and three hits.
The final run of the day for Pittsburg came in the bottom of the fifth inning when a sacrifice-fly to center field plated a runner and made it a 7-3 ballgame with time running out for Iola.
