TOPEKA — The Iola AA Indians American Legion baseball team cruised their way to a monstrous 11-2 victory in game one of the Kansas American Legion state tournament on Wednesday afternoon over Concordia.
Iola used two innings of big offensive showings, scoring four and five runs in the second and fifth innings, respectively. Iola’s Nathan Louk tossed five innings of two-run and five-hit baseball on the mound in the victory.
The Indians were down 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning after Louk served up a couple of runs to the Blues, an RBI single to left field and an RBI single to center with two outs in the first inning.
“I think overall he looked really good. One ball we lost in the sun, if that doesn’t happen we don’t even give up those first two runs in the first inning. Nathan is a very intelligent pitcher and figures out what kids can hit. After the first time out facing everyone he kind of knows what to throw them and what they have trouble hitting,” said Iola head coach John Taylor.
Iola struck right back, however. TJ Taylor was able to knock an RBI single on a hard ground ball to shortstop to bring home Cooper Riley for the first run of the day. Only one batter later, Sam Hull ripped a triple over the center fielder’s head which brought home Taylor to knot the score at 2-2.
Iola doubled Concordia’s run total in the top of the second when Gavin Page doubled to center field the next at bat before Louk singled to center field for the 4-2 Iola advantage.
“We’ve got guys at the bottom of the lineup that can hit. They don’t hit all the time but today they strung some together. Once one or two of them start getting hits they kind of start rolling and that’s kind of what happened there. I think the bottom of the order hit better than the top of the lineup today,” Taylor said.
The Indians then struck again offensively in the third inning when Hull hit an RBI groundout to second base to bring home Riley.
The ballgame remained a two-run game up until the fifth inning when the Indians brought across five runs beginning with a Taylor RBI reach on an error by Concordia’s second baseman. Hull then grounded out for a run before Page singled to shortstop to bring home Taylor and make the score 8-2.
Drake DeLaTorre smacked an RBI single to right field to bring home Page to end the scoring in the fifth inning. Any chance of a comeback for Concordia looked very slim. 
“These kids are fighters and they want to win. They want to be successful for each other which is a big thing,” said Taylor. “What makes this team special is they want to play for each other and they want to be successful for their hometown and that’s why they have so much fun.”
Louk struck out four Concordia batters and only walked two on the day through his five innings on the mound. Iola’s Eli Smith came on to clean things up in the sixth and seventh innings not allowing a single hit and striking out one batter.
Smith also drove in the final run of the day in the top of the seventh inning on an RBI groundout to shortstop to bring home Taylor for the final 11-2 tally.
Three Iola batters finished the day with multiple hits. Page knocked in three while Louk and DeLaTorre each ripped two hits of their own. Hull led on the day driving in three runs while DeLaTorre and Page each knocked in two runs as well.
Iola will play in game two of the American Legion state tournament Thursday morning at 9 o’clock against Larned.
