CONCORDIA — Iola added to its storied baseball legacy Monday when the Post 15 Indians defeated Hiawatha 10-3 to secure the team’s third consecutive American Legion AA state title.
It was anything but easy.
After outlasting Hiawatha 13-10 a day earlier to secure a berth in the championship round, Iola missed on a shot to win the championship earlier Monday, falling 6-0 to the same Hiawatha Braves.
But rather than let the defeat fester, Iola’s Corbin Cloud shut down the powerful Hiawatha lineup in the third and decisive game between the top two seeds.
Cloud threw five shutout innings before tiring in the bottom of the sixth. The Braves plated three runs, closing Iola’s 4-0 lead to 4-3 — with the bases still loaded.
But relief pitcher Ryan Golden induced a pop-up to end the threat.
Iola then proceeded to send eight straight batters to the plate. The first seven reached by a hit batsman or walk. The other was Golden’s double to make it to 10-3.
Grady Dougherty, who later earned a sportsmanship award for his play on and off the diamond, pitched a scoreless seventh to wrap up the game.
“It was a little more nerve-wracking than we were hoping,” Indian head coach TJ Taylor said. “But the guys came through.”
Iola had hoped to wrap things up earlier in the day but instead ran into the left arm of the Braves’ Cooper Jacobson.
Jacobson carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Iola’s Cloud laced a leadoff single.
But by then, Hiawatha had scored a pair of unearned runs in the third inning and racked on four more in the top of the sixth to secure a 6-0 victory.
More details about Monday’s contests will be In Wednesday’s Register.
AFTER relying on its dominating pitching through the first two rounds of the American Legion Class AA State Tournament, the Indians found their offense on Sunday in a wild affair against Hiawatha.
The two teams combined to score 16 runs over the final two innings, with Iola getting the last laugh, a five-run outburst in the bottom of the sixth to turn a 10-8 deficit into a 13-10 victory.
IN SUNDAY’S slugfest Iola took the lead for good after loading the bases to start the bottom of the sixth inning.
