OSAWATOMIE — Game one in Osawatomie was a breeze for Post 15 with ace Derek Bycroft dominating on the mound. Bycroft cruised through six innings by throwing only 83 pitches. He allowed only two hits and one run during his complete game. Iola won 9-1 in six innings due to the eight-run rule.
“Lately, I’ve been struggling with my pitching,” Bycroft said. “I really wanted to get out there, throw strikes and finish a complete game.”
Game two was much different.
In the nightcap, the Indians handed the ball to Kane Rogers. Rogers struggled with some bad luck and control problems and was able to record only two outs in the first inning and giving up five runs.
Iola coach Rick Vink pulled Rogers and inserted shortstop Daylon Splane to pitch. Splane righted the ship and got out of the first and pitched a shutout second frame.
“I knew I needed to throw strikes and keep giving it everything I’ve got, even though we are down,” Splane said.
Iola cut the margin to 5-3 in the second inning with a pair of RBIs from Blake Ashmore and an RBI single by Bycroft.
Osawatomie responded with four runs in the third.
Iola got closer in the fourth inning with a sac-fly from left fielder Keanen Badders, but the Indians went into the fifth and final inning went trailing 9-4.
Even so, Post 15 wasn’t ready to quit.
The Indians put up five runs in the fifth to tie the game and send it to extra innings after Splane shutout the Raiders in the bottom of the fifth inning.
In the top of the sixth, Iola kept the momentum going with two runs on Splane and Bycroft RBIs.
With Splane tiring in the sixth inning, Osawatomie was able to tie it up and extend the game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame.
The seventh inning was scoreless for both teams with Ethan Tavarez taking over on the mound for Splane. Splane threw 103 pitches to keep his team in the game.
“From game one, they were calling the low strike, so I knew to keep the ball low and they weren’t going to want to swing at them,” Tavarez said.
Iola erupted for five runs in the top of the eighth inning.
Bycroft got it started with double off the wall in center field to score two runs and give Iola a 13-11 lead.
