Badders, Iola walk off in thrilling fashion

Keanen Badders sent the Iola Mustangs home winners on Tuesday night against Osawatomie.
“I was a little nervous at first, but that’s probably my favorite situation in a baseball game,” Badders said. “Two outs in a tie game, to be the last at-bat.”
With the score tied 7-7 and the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, Badders came through with a clutch hit to win the game. The ball was a bloop single that landed perfectly in-between the second baseman and right fielder.
“I was kind of hoping, I didn’t really know,” Badders said. “Once I saw that kid dive on the ground, I knew he missed it.”
It gave the Mustangs the 8-7 win.
The club trailed 7-6 going into the final inning. For the bases to get loaded, the Mustangs had to get good at-bats from the bottom of their order.
“It didn’t look too good. We had our bottom of the order up in that last inning and they got on base,” coach Mark Percy said. “Then we had some guys come through with big hits. That’s fun. I don’t want them like that all the time, but it was fun.”
Garrett Wade walked, Brett Taylor singled and Ben Cooper singled to load the bases up. With two outs, Ethan Scheibmeir came to the plate. He didn’t get a hit, but he was able to draw a walk to bring in the tying run. That led to Badders’ clutch single. Coach Percy was in the same boat as Badders, watching the ball.
“I was just hoping that right fielder didn’t get there and he didn’t,” Percy said.
The game started off in Iola’s favor. In the first inning, Kohl Endicott foreshadowed things to come with a bases-loaded walk to bring in a run. It gave the Mustangs a 1-0 lead. In the second, Taylor mashed a homer to left-centerfield to give Iola a 2-0 lead.
In the top of the third inning, the Trojans made their move, knocking five runs across the plate to take the 5-2 lead. Iola answered in the bottom of the fourth inning with a run.
Scheibmeir knocked in Drew Faulhaber for the RBI on a fielder’s choice — Scheibmeir ended up on first base safely because of an error. The inning ended in a missed opportunity. The bases were loaded, but Iola hit into a double-play keeping the score in Osawatomie’s favor at 5-3.
Heading into the bottom of the sixth, Iola trailed 7-3. Faulhaber came through with an RBI-double that scored Cooper, who walked. After Scheibmeir singled — and reached second base on a throw to the plate — runners were on second and third with no outs. Badders came to the plate, bringing both runners home on a double. Iola trailed 7-6, before completing the comeback in the seventh inning.
“They’re not giving up and they won’t, but we need to start off better,” Percy said. “Everything’s got to get better. It will, we’ve got time.”
Earlier in the day, Iola lost 12-8. But, it could have been much worse. The Mustangs trailed 12-0 heading into the fifth inning.
Endicott started the inning off with a single. Wade was hit by the pitch. With one swing, Faulhaber kept the team in the game. He struck a home run to give Iola three runs. It kept the game going, instead of ending due to the run-limit.
In the sixth inning, Iola added two more runs. Ethan Sigg hit a sacrifice fly and Taylor hit an RBI-double. The Trojans led 12-5.
Heading into the seventh inning, Iola needed seven runs. Faulhaber started it off with a walk. Scheibmeir followed with a single. Sigg brought them both in on a double. It wouldn’t be enough though. Iola added one more run. Endicott reached on an error and Sigg scored.
The team lost 12-8, but those at-bats proved critical to the team’s approach at the plate in game two.
 “That’s the way we need to play all the time. We’re better than how we’re playing,” Percy said. “Although, we played both games at the end with some fire. That’s the way we need to play from the start. We got a lot of young guys and they’re all learning.”
Iola (6-2) hosts Parsons next Tuesday.