Short on pitching after a tough start against one of the best teams in the state, it would have been easy to write off Iola High’s Mustangs Friday evening.
But after a heartbreaking 16-13 setback to Paola, ranked third in Kansas Class 4A, the Mustangs turned to a pair of unsung heroes to turn things around.
Pitchers Isaac McCullough and Gavin Jones silenced the Panther bats, limiting Paola to six hits in a 5-2 victory.
“I was proud of our offense and how we battled back, but 16-13 is not a baseball score,” Iola head coach Levi Ashmore said. “5-2 is more of a baseball score I’d like to see.”
McCullough and Jones were pressed into duty following Friday’s opener, in which Iola was plagued by six errors and nine walks.
“With our best guys on the mound,” Ashmore added. “That’s not what you want.”
And with senior Mac Leonard nursing a sore arm, it meant Ashmore needed to find a replacement to start Game 2.
Enter Isaac McCullough, a senior southpaw who hadn’t pitched since the first week of the season.
“I told Isaac 5 minutes before the game started that he was pitching,” Ashmore said. “He came out and gave us 3 good innings.”
Meanwhile, Iola’s offense continued its torrid start from Game 1, when Tre Wilson drove in a run with a first-inning single before another run came on Grady Dougherty’s ground ball for a 2-0 lead.
Paola responded with single runs in the second and third innings to tie the score, prompting Ashmore to turn to Jones, for what he hoped would be a couple of innings.
Jones had other ideas.
Iola’s Ben Kerr was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to push Iola ahead, 3-2, before Jones entered the game. He struck out the first two batters he saw, then induced a pop-fly to Wilson at catcher for the third out.
Korbin Cloud and Wilson gave Iola a bit of breathing room with RBI doubles in Iola’s half of the fourth.
Meanwhile, Jones again retired Paola in order in the fifth.
