Iola loses to Ottawa 8-3 Thursday, puts season on brink

Editor’s note: Due to early deadlines of the paper, results from Friday’s Zone 6 Tournament games were unavailable before press time. A full recap for the rest of the tournament will be in Monday’s Register.

POMONA — Iola’s offense faltered against a solid pitching performance from Ottawa in a 8-3 loss Thursday night. Now, the AA American Legion Post 15 baseball team will have an uphill climb in order to win the Zone 6 Tournament and advance to the state American Legion tournament.
“We have to do it the hard way,” coach Roland Weir said. “Ottawa came out tonight, hit really well. They stroked the ball. We had three hits the entire game. It’s hard to win a game with three hits. We had an early lead, they played their way back into it by hitting the ball.”
The first inning may have been a foreshadowing of what was to come later in the game. Trent Latta was the only baserunner for the Indians, reaching on an error. But the big shocker might have been that Derrick Weir struck out — only the second time this season.
In the bottom half, Ottawa had the first scoring chance of the night. Their leadoff hitter reached after a ball took a once-in-a-lifetime hop over Drew Faulhaber at second base, as if it was the snitch Harry Potter was chasing in a quidditch match. The next batter then hit a shallow pop fly to left field that hit the inside of shortstop Hunter Murrow’s glove, and then the ground. Murrow recovered in time to throw out the runner at second.
The next batter followed with a double just out of reach of a diving Eric Heffern in right field and rolled to the wall. Inexplicably, Ottawa’s baserunner only made it to third. Latta, who got the start, recovered a pair of strikeouts to end the inning. No runs, but a weird start nonetheless.
The second inning went the Indians’ way, with four straight walks to Caleb D’Armond, Jacob Carpenter, Kason Siemens and Eric Heffern. During Heffern’s at bat, a wild pitch allowed all the runners to advance a base, resulting in Iola’s first run of the game. Murrow came through with an RBI-single, followed by a Drew Faulhaber sacrifice fly. The inning ended without further damage when Heffern was thrown out trying to score on a wild pitch.
The third inning was a bad one for the Indians. Iola couldn’t get the bats rolling in the top half of the inning, while they couldn’t get their gloves to work in the bottom half.
Ottawa’s Connor Stepp was ruled safe after the umpire ruled Carpenter’s foot was not on the bag, for the first of three Indian errors in the inning.
The next batter grounded out before Ottawa batters followed with a double and single to cut the deficit to 3-2.
The next batter hit an infield fly toward Faulhaber at second, but he couldn’t come up with the catch — error No. 2.
Another RBI-single tied the game. Murrow was unable to come up with a sharp grounder that bounced off his chest and into the outfield, for error No. 3. Suddenly, Ottawa was on top 4-3.
The fourth inning featured another oddity. Carpenter led off with a single but was retired after Siemens short pop-up was dropped by the first baseman.
Carpenter held in place as the ball trickled to the outfield. The fielder snared the ball, tagged Siemens en route to the base, then reached Carpenter before he could scamper safely back to the bag.
Ottawa kept up the pressure with two singles and a double to score twice more in the bottom of the inning, even though Latta still struck out the side.
Iola’s last true scoring chance evaporated in the sixth. D’Armond reached on a fielder’s choice and  Carpenter with a walk. Pinch hitter Aaron Barclay sacrificed the runners to second and third, but Heffern struck out to end the threat.
A bases-loaded single in the bottom of the sixth gave Ottawa its final two runs.
“Trent (Latta) pitched well, he got out of some tough situations,” Coach Weir said. “They’ve got some good hitters, they’ve improved during the season. They’re a better team than when they started this year.”
Latta didn’t have his best stuff, as he gave up four earned runs on 12 hits. But, he did strike out 10, only walking one.
Iola played Paola at 6 p.m. on Friday. If they won, they had a rematch with Ottawa at 8 o’clock in the double-elimination contest.
If necessary, a second championship game will be today at noon in Pomona.