HUMBOLDT — Iola’s AA American Legion team remained undefeated after beating Santa Fe Trail in both games of a doubleheader Tuesday night. Both games showed off the contrasting styles of play.
Game one resulted in an 11-1 blowout.
The Indians took a three run lead in the first inning. Hunter Murrow got things started with a leadoff single. A fielder’s choice by Caleb Vanatta moved Murrow to second. Trenton Latta then ripped a ball past the Santa Fe Trail’s shortstop, scoring Murrow. Latta later scored on a wild pitch. Drew Faulhaber hit an RBI single before the inning ended.
“The pitching and defense has been a mainstay so far this season, the hitting’s coming along. It’s just been sporadic,” coach Roland Weir said. “We score a lot of runs the first inning and then we wait four or five innings and score runs then.”
Santa Fe Trail bounced back, scoring one run in the top of the second on a fielder’s choice. Aaron Barclay started the game, pitching the first two innings, before being pulled from the game with a sore shoulder. Barclay was credited with the win and had three strikeouts, giving up one hit and one run with three walks. He played first base in game two.
Drew Faulhaber came in for four innings of shutout relief. He struck out three batters and walked three, allowing no hits.
An eight-run sixth inning by the Indians ended the game. The bases were loaded after three consecutive singles by Latta, Derrick Weir and Grayson Pearish to start the inning. Faulhaber had another RBI-single to bring in a run, and keep the bases loaded. Jacob Carpenter followed with an RBI-triple clearing the bases. He came in to score after a balk by the pitcher. Kason Siemens started things off again, with a single. Two walks loaded the bases, for Latta, who started off the inning. He ended the game with a bases clearing RBI-triple.
Three batters accounted for all of the Indian’s RBIs. Latta was 2-for-4 with four RBIs, Carpenter was 2-for 3 with three RBIs and Faulhaber was 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Siemens was 2-for-2 with two runs scored. Eric Heffern, Hunter Murrow and Pearish all had one hit.
GAME TWO was a much closer 4-2 Indians win.
“It goes back to pitching and defense. Our pitching has been A-plus and our defense has been A-plus,” coach Weir said. “We just have to put more runs on the board. I saw glimpses of our hitting tonight, so it’s coming along.”
In the first inning, Vanatta drew a leadoff walk. Latta laid down a sacrifice bunt, moving Vanatta into scoring position, moving to third after a wild pitch. Weir then hit Vanatta in on an RBI-single.
Santa Fe Trail answered back in the top of the second. After a leadoff double and wild pitch, Santa Fe Trail had a runner at third. They scored after short stop Hunter Murrow threw home on a dribbler hit toward him, with the ball thrown wild.
The Indians got that run back in the bottom of the inning of an RBI-single by Caleb D’Armond. They scored two more runs in the third inning. Weir had an RBI-double and Pearish hit him in on a single.
Alex Murrow started the game, pitching four innings. He gave up four hits and four walks, striking out three. He gave up both runs.
In the fourth inning Murrow had some trouble. Santa Fe Trail scored on a two-out rally, leaving runners on second and third. Murrow settled down and got the strikeout to end the inning. Siemens came into the fifth, able to close out the game.
