The first two dominoes fell in order for Iola High’s baseball team to secure a Pioneer League championship.
The Mustangs swept visiting Santa Fe Trail Tuesday, 13-3 and 9-1, to keep Iola’s hopes for a league crown alive.
Iola wraps up the regular season with a doubleheader today at Osawatomie.
If the Mustangs (13-4 and 11-1 in Pioneer League) can win those games, they’ll be league champs.
Head coach Ryan Latta knew Iola’s season-ending gauntlet was going to be tough. Winning four games in a row is difficult, particularly when playing doubleheaders on back-to-back days, he explained.
“That’s why it was huge for our pitchers to go the distance in both games,” Latta said.
The Mustangs’ Ryker Curry and Bradyn Cole were masterful from the mound.
Curry struck out 10 in his complete game victory.
His only wobble came in the fifth, when Santa Fe Trail led off the frame with three straight hits, followed by an Iola error, a hit batter and a passed ball.
But Curry struck out two batters and induced a ground ball to end the threat.
By then, Iola had things well in control.
Curry doubled to lead off the bottom of the first, Nathan Louk walked and Bradyn Cole doubled to drive in two. Dillon Bycroft walked before Brandon McKarnin’s ground ball scored Cole for a 3-0 lead. Jarrett Herrmann worked a walk, before both he and Bycroft then came around to score when the Chargers’ right fielder misplayed Eli Smith’s fly ball to make it 5-0.
The fun continued in the second frame.
Kole Rogers and Louk sandwiched singles around a walk to Curry before a Chargers error allowed pinch runner Dillon Slaven to score. Bycroft’s RBI grounder made it 8-0. Another Chargers error — they had four in the game — chased home Bycroft for a 9-0 lead.
After the Chargers plated three in the fifth, McKarnin and Herrmann walked to lead off the bottom half of the inning. TJ Taylor’s RBI grounder brought home McKarnin; Herrmann scored on Smith’s sacrifice fly.
