For six innings, the Single-A Indians couldn’t get anything going offensively and appeared to be heading toward their 16th loss of the season.
“We came out very low-energy and it was a rough start,” Iola coach Kris Collins said. “Everyone was lackadaisical.”
Then the bats awoke.
Trailing 7-3 with only three outs left, first baseman Hunter Preston led off the seventh inning with a double.
After Wellsville recorded an out, Calvin Delich kept the rally hopes alive for Iola by singling.
With Iola’s offense gaining confidence, the frenzied hitting had the opposite effect on Wellsville’s pitching staff. They walked the next three batters and just like that, Iola cut the lead to 7-5 and had the bases filled with Indians and just one out.
“With us, all it takes is one person to start the spark and after that we all start hitting,” Wyatt Seufert said.
Wellsville made a pitching change and was able to get a second out, leaving Iola’s fate in the hands of left fielder Hunter Baughn.
With Baughn at the plate, Wellsville began to struggle to find the strike zone again and a wild pitch cut the margin to just one run.
Baughn singled to tie the game at seven and send the game to extra innings.
Josh Vanetta — who had entered the game early on with the Indians trailing and was tasked with keeping the team in the game — put up another scoreless inning in the eighth.
Iola now had a chance for walk-off win.
First at bat, Preston drew a four-pitch walk. Again Wellsville recovered with a strikeout, but Delich picked up his teammate and singled to put runners on the corners with only one away.
Griffin Vorhees – after scoring one of the runs in the seventh to keep the game alive – popped out to second base and Wellsville had a chance to extend the game. Seufert was tasked with making sure that didn’t happen as he stepped in to the batter’s box.
“It was a pretty big situation,” Seufert said. “We had to fight back in the seventh inning and (my teammates) were able to keep filling up the bases.”
Seufert didn’t disappoint his teammates as he laced a single back up the middle and gave Post 15 the 8-7 extra-inning victory.
