A sixth-inning rally propelled Iola Senior American Legion’s baseball squad to victory Thursday evening.
The Post 15 Indians broke a 2-2 deadlock with visiting Independence to win, 6-2.
The momentum continued into the second game of their doubleheader as Iola took control with a four-run second inning on the way to a 7-2 victory.
The sweep lifts the Indians to 8-3 on the season with a home doubleheader slated for Sunday at Allen Community College. First pitch is at noon.
Iola’s Korbin Cloud settled down after a leadoff error paved the way to a pair of unearned Independence runs in the first inning of Game 1. He allowed only one other hit over his six innings of work, while striking out 11.
Cloud also jump-started Iola’s first rally of the game with a leadoff single in the bottom of the first. Courtesy runner Cole Mathes moved up to second after Blake Ellis was hit by a pitch, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Rogan Weir’s sacrifice fly.
The Indians weren’t able to do much after that until Trey Sommer roped a double with one out in the fourth. Sommer moved up to third when Independence failed to return the ball to the infield in a timely manner and scored on Tre Wilson’s single back up the middle.
Cloud also evaded damage in the top of the sixth after Independence put runners on first and second with nobody out. Wilson gunned down a baserunner trying to steal third. Cloud took it from there, striking out the final batters of the frame.
That was just the opening the Indians needed. Ellis and Weir opened the bottom of the sixth with singles before Wilson laced a run-scoring single to right to push Iola up, 3-2. Logan Page blasted a two-run double on the next pitch, making it 5-2.
Kyler Isbell poked a single through the left side of the infield, allowing Page to beat the throw home for the sixth and final run.
Cloud, Ellis and Wilson all had two hits as part of Post 15’s 11-hit attack. Page and Sommer had doubles. Weir, Isbell and Grady Dougherty chipped in with one single each. Gavin Jones pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning with a strikeout to end the affair.
PAGE took the mound for Game 2, and didn’t allow a hit until the top of the fifth. He wound up striking out six over his five innings of two-hit work.
Weir walked with two outs in the first and scored on Sommer’s double for a quick 1-0 lead. Iola took full control in the second on a two-run single from McKarnin and a two-run double from Ellis. McKarnin tacked on another two-run single in the bottom of the fourth for the sixth and seventh runs.
McKarnin and Gunderman both had a pair of singles, while Sommer and Ellis had doubles.
