HUMBOLDT — The Post 15 Indians are in need of a confidence-building victory, but they will have to wait until they host the Iola Tournament this weekend.
On Wednesday, the Indians’ losing streak was extended to six games after they were swept in Humboldt by Chanute.
“You always want to win,” Iola coach Rick Vink said. “We’ve played some really good teams and in four of those six games, we’ve competed really well.”
In game one, the Indians took an early lead with a two-run first inning. With a porous defense, Iola allowed Chanute to quickly retake the advantage.
Vink blames the defensive lapses that his team has been suffering lately to not being able to respond once things begin to go wrong.
“We let one bad play lead to another bad play, so we’ve talked about picking each other up a little bit more,” Vink said. “The guys did a better job tonight, but when they have a pitcher on the mound that you know you aren’t going to get a lot of runs against and we give up two or three runs, they think they are out of the game and lose focus.
“It is part of being a young team.”
Chanute took a 3-2 lead in the third inning, one in the fourth, two in the fifth and one in the sixth to provide the final 7-2 margin.
The Iola offense dried up after the first inning of game one and that lack of production continued in game two with Chanute rolling to a 6-0 win.
“We aren’t hitting the ball really well right now, but we are also seeing some pitching that is probably a little better than they’ve seen the rest of the year,” Vink said.
Cal Leonard got the start in game two and pitched well early, but more errors cost the Indians early with Chanute getting a run in the second to take the lead and then scoring three in the third inning after a pair of misplays in the outfield.
Chanute added two more runs in the fourth inning to provide the final 6-0 margin of victory.
Despite the losses, Vink was impressed with the performance of a pair of his lesser-used bullpen arms with Darius Greenawalt finishing game one and Kane Rogers finishing game two. Greenawalt has seen very few innings this season due to missing several games, but Vink looks forward to being able to count on the former Mustang right-hander more as the year goes on.
“When Darius is here, he gives us some good innings and he does a great job for a kid that doesn’t get to be on the mound a lot,” Vink said. “Darius throws strikes and is tough to hit. Kane mixes it up well and isn’t going to throw it by anybody, but does a good job of keeping them off balance.”
UP NEXT
The Indians will play in their home tournament this weekend, Iola will open the tournament on Friday at 6 p.m., in Humboldt.
“We’ve got to get after it this weekend,” Vink said.
The full tournament schedule is on page B1.
