Visiting Chanute High scored four runs in an inning without hitting the ball past the infield Friday.
The Blue Comets took full advantage of Iola High miscues in the field to take control of a 6-3 win at Iola’s Riverside Park.
“We had a few walks, passed balls, mental errors in the field,” Mustang head coach Ryan Latta said. The troubles started in the top of the third.
Iola starter Ryker Curry had breezed through the first two innings before Chanute’s Ty Leedy led off the third with a slow grounder to short that he beat by an eyelash for an infield single.
The next two Chanute batters walked to load the bases with nobody out. Curry looked to get out of the frame unharmed when he struck out the next two batters.
That’s when things began to unravel.
Curry hit the next batter to force in the first run of the game. Chanute then scored on a wild pitch, and plated two more on a passed ball for a 4-0 lead.
A pair of Mustang errors in the top of the fourth led to two more Chanute runs for a 6-0 lead.
“That’s when we’ve gotta be locked in,” Latta said. “When things start going south, that’s when you’ve got to focus.”
Iola missed on a scoring change in its half of the third, when Nathan Louk walked and moved around to third with two out. But he was left stranded when Bradyn Cole’s missile to left field was snared by the Blue Comets’ Aaron Robertson for the third out.
Iola got a run back in the sixth when Jarrett Herrmann and Curry hit back-to-back singles in the sixth. Herrmann scored on a force play off the bat of Dillon Bycroft. Then Cole followed with a single to put runners on first and second with two outs. But a groundout ended the threat with no further damage.
The Mustangs then made things really interesting in the bottom of the seventh.
After Curry lined out to start the frame, Louk and Bycroft singled, and the Blue Comet third baseman was unable to beat Louk to the bag on Cole’s ground ball, loading the bases.
Drake Sellman laced a single to left field to score Louk.
Chanute’s Keondre Gregory picked up a crucial strikeout on a pitch that Iola batter Eli Smith argued was outside the strike zone for out no. 2.
Iola’s TJ Taylor stroked a single to left to drive in Bycroft to make it 6-3, prompting the Blue Comets to summon Parker Manly in an attempt to finish out the victory. Kole Rogers’ hard ground ball was snared by the Blue Comet short stop for a force play at second to end the game.
“I’m proud of the boys,” Latta said. “They came out in that last inning, and didn’t give up. We had some good at bats, and we’re hitting the ball hard. That’s all I can ask. We’ve just gotta clean up some things.”
