The baseball gods like Iola senior Derek Bycroft, but they may not love him.
The ace and reigning 4A-II Pitcher of the Year has had four separate starts so far this season and while hes pitched fairly well in all of them, two stand above the rest.
Tuesday nights home 9-0 win over Osawatomie and the season-opening 8-0 win versus Burlington saw Bycroft enter the seventh-inning unscathed and just three outs away from a no-hitter. In both games, the Trojans and the Wildcats found a way to get a fluky hit to mess it up with just one out left in the game.
Twice now on the last batter, head coach Mark Percy laughed. Incredible. No-hitters are awesome but I dont really worry about them too much. As long as hes pitching well and were playing well, thats what matters.
Despite the one-hit, Bycroft threw his third shutout of the season which was followed up by junior Cal Leonards best pitching performance of the season after throwing a shutout of his own in the 10-0, five-inning, game two win.
The wins move the Mustangs to 8-0 making them one of two 4A teams left undefeated.
Iola shot out ahead in game one, scoring five runs in the first and one in the second to take a 6-0 lead. After that, things slowed significantly.
Iola scored a run in the fourth and then two in the bottom of the sixth to close out the game.
I think sometimes we go flat, Percy said. We had the bases loaded in the fifth and we couldve ended the game but we didnt do it. It wasnt really a big deal but it caused Derek to throw more pitches, which isnt good. We need to be better than that.
Junior Calvin Delich, junior Brady Wiggin and sophomore Nathan Louk each had two hits in the win. Blake Ashmore reached base twice on a walk and he and Wiggin were hit by a pitch.
Bycroft struck out 10.
In game two, Iola started strong again with five runs in the second inning. The Mustangs put up two in the fourth and three in the fifth to push their lead to 10 and end the game on a five-inning run rule.
Bycroft had three hits and Delich had two including a triple. Ashmore once again was walked twice. The Mustangs stole seven bases and Leonard struck-out eight batters in his one-hit, two-walk win.
The Mustangs are hoping for good weather on Thursday so they can finally play their second series of the week. They will be traveling to Independence after the doubleheader was rained out several weeks ago.
We really hope we can play on Thursday, Percy said. Its tough to get a rhythm and consistency going when youre only playing once a week. We have a couple of young guys that really havent gotten the innings that they need because of the bad weather.
