RICHMOND — Pitching helped Iola’s baseball team win a doubleheader against Central Heights Tuesday night, 3-2 and 3-0.
“Pitching was very good,” coach Mark Percy said. “We finally got a few key hits but we’re still making lots of mistakes. Missing signals, not getting bunts down, all the little things you need to do to score, we’re not doing. There was a whole bunch of those today, so we’ll just keep working.”
Derek Weir pitched a complete, seven innings in the first game. He gave up only two runs on three hits while striking out six. The Vikings had a 2-0 lead until the sixth, when the Mustangs tied it.
The offense had struggled up to that point, having only one hit from Coleson Wiggin, a single in the second inning.
Weir helped his own cause, by hitting in Ethan Scheibmeir who had reached on a walk. Trenton Latta scored the second run of the inning off a fielder’s choice, after reaching on a double.
The Mustangs took their first lead of the game, on the eventual game winning run in the seventh. Brett Taylor reached on a hit by pitch, taking first base. Taylor was sacrificed to second by Kohl Endicott. Taylor then scored after a hard ground ball wasn’t fielded by the Vikings third baseman.
Weir then went out in the bottom of the inning and shut Central Heights down, striking out the first two batters before getting a grounder hit right back to him.
Latta was the story of game two. He threw a gem, going the distance while tossing a no-hit shutout. He literally wasn’t hittable, striking out 15. That’s nearly 72 percent of the outs in the game, where the fielders just had to stand and watch.
“When we get pitching like that we’re going to be in pretty good shape,” Percy said. “It was two very well pitched games, we just didn’t do a whole lot else to tell you the truth. We must get a little more offense going.”
The Mustangs took the lead in the first inning, when Weir hit a single and Scheibmeir came into score. That’s really all Latta would need, but his team got him two insurance runs.
In the fifth, Weir singled to centerfield and this time Latta came around to score. He reached base after drawing a walk. In the seventh, with the bases loaded, Caleb Alexander took one for the team after being hit by a pitch, resulting in Drew Faulhaber to score, increasing the lead 3-0. Latta then had a 1-2-3 inning to finish off the game.
The Mustangs head to LaCygne to play in the Pioneer League Tournament on Thursday.
Iola takes on Anderson County at 4:30 p.m. and Prairie View at 6 o’clock.
The finals will be Monday, also at Prairie View.
