American Legion advances to regionals

COLBY — After its early entrance into the losers’ bracket of the AA State Tournament, Iola was supposed to go away quietly.
After dropping down to just nine active players for two of its games, Iola was supposed to be too worn out.
After committing five errors in the semifinal round, Iola was supposed to quit.
So when Iola defied the odds, kept winning and eventually forged its path to the state championship, it finally seemed like the Indians were supposed to be the masters of their own destiny.
Then reality hit.
Iola fell 8-3 to Hays in the title game of the American Legion state tournament on Saturday, which prevented Roland Weir from becoming the first coach to lead a team to a championship following a first-round loss.
“The kids worked their butts off to get there,” Weir said. “They really did. I’m super proud of all of them. You know, there was probably a lot of people who said, ‘No, they couldn’t do it.’ But they went out and proved they could.”
Because of the squad’s limited roster and its placement within the losers’ bracket, Weir was forced to pitch 14-year-old Derek Bycroft against Hays in the championship.
Caleb D’Armond, Trent Latta and Kason Siemens had all reached their innings limit by the time the Indians reached the final round of the tournament, leaving Weir with almost no other options.
Weir said dropping down to the losers’ bracket after the first game cost his team as it had to use more of its already depleted starting rotation.
“If you don’t get off to a good start, it taxes your pitching,” Weir said. “We were short-handed coming out as it is with just 10 players, but we just didn’t have enough at the end.”
Against the veteran heavy Monarchs’ lineup, Bycroft struggled to attack the strike zone consistently. He walked six and hit one batter through 5 and one-third innings.
When he was pulled in the sixth with the bases loaded, Bycroft had surrendered five runs off eight hits. But because the runners on base were still charged to him when he was replaced by Trent Latta on the mound, Bycroft finished the day with all of Hays’ eight runs to his name.
“We had a 14-year-old start in the state championship game,” Weir said. “He pitched his butt off for five innings. We just got a sloppy defensively and didn’t make some plays for him.”
The Indians made three errors between the fourth and fifth innings that allowed the Monarchs to plate three runs. Before those errors, the contest was knotted 2-2.
But when Weir needed his bats to redeem the mistakes the gloves made in the field, they couldn’t come through either.
Iola’s offense, which had scored at least seven runs in its previous four games, was held in check by Hays. The Indians had just finished three straight days of play, including two games on Friday and a semifinal matchup only hours before the first pitch of the championship.
Simply put, Iola’s thin lineup looked worn out by the time it had to face Hays.
After scoring a quick two runs in the bottom of the first to match the Monarchs’ two-run start in the top half, the Indians’ bats fell silent throughout the rest of the game, going 3-for-20 in the following six innings.
Iola recorded just five hits in its championship loss, which was the lowest since its opening round defeat to Colby when the Indians were held to just three knocks.
“We just didn’t have enough answers,” Weir said. “We just kind of fell flat the last three innings.”
Despite being named as the runner-up in the state tournament, Iola still moves on to the regional round in Le Sueur, Minnessota, thanks to a new rule put in place this year to expand the field of play.
So when Iola clinched a spot in the state championship when it knocked off Beloit with a 11-3 victory in the semifinal early Saturday morning, the Indians also knew that the victory guaranteed them a spot in the regional tournament.
Kansas, Minnessota, North Dakota and Wisconsin will each have two teams in the regional while Nevada, South Dakota and Nebraska will just have one representative.
The pool system tournament pits Iola against South Dakota in the first game Thursday at 11:30 a.m. and the Minnessota state champion in the next on Friday at 11:15 a.m. The top two teams in the Indians’ pool, which is Pool A, will advance to the single elimination portion of the regionals.
Iola will begin the eight-hour trip for Le Sueur on Wednesday morning.
Weir said after a physical week of tournament play, the team will not meet for a full practice before leaving for Minnessota but may have a quick batting practice session Tuesday night.
“We’re going to take some time off and let the bumps and bruises and arms heal,” Weir said.
In total, Iola played five games in just four days at Colby and it would have needed to play six (defeating Hays twice) to clinch a state title. Had they not lost to start the tournament, the Indians would have needed just four games to clinch a championship.
But in those five games, Iola saw some bright spots shine through when the pressure was at its highest.
After going 0-for-2 against Colby and 0-for-2 against Wellington, Derrick Weir then went 11-for-11 at the plate with 10 RBIs, nine runs scored and two walks and hit-by-pitches.
His RBI single in the fifth inning of the semifinal against Beloit gave Iola the eight-run advantage it needed to end the contest early and clinch an automatic bid in the regional tournament.
The MVP on the mound for Iola was Trent Latta, who gave up just two earned runs on seven hits in 12 and two-thirds innings pitched. The veteran right-hander also struck out a team-high 23 batters.
And the most odd play of the tournament is credited to Caleb D’Armond.
During Iola’s semifinal matchup with Beloit, D’Armond launched a rocket toward left field that appeared to clear the fence for a two-run home run.
However, no signal was made while D’Armond was jogging around the basepaths. So when the ball bounced back into play and was thrown to the Blue Jays’ catcher waiting at home, D’Armond was tagged out.
After protests from Weir and assistant coach Jarred Latta that the ball did indeed clear the fence and come into play after bouncing back over, the umpires gathered and decided to reverse the initial call and signal home run.
But then they gathered again and reversed the call again, saying the ball stayed in play the entire time.
The runner at first scored but D’Armond was to be called out at home, nullifying his only home run of the year
“I felt terrible for (D’Armond),” Weir said after the game. “He had always talked about getting a home run this season and then that happened.”
Iola still won the game and the lost run never affected the outcome of the contest.
Now the Indians look ahead toward Minnessota where they have the chance to win their first ever regional tournament. Although he certainly didn’t want to take the hard route by losing the first game, Weir said he was encouraged to see his team has what it takes to win no matter the circumstances.
“It just shows you this group of kids can get it done under pressure,” Weir said. “They’re pressure players. So when the going gets tough, they get a little tougher.”