It took about a half inning for Iola High’s Mustangs to get their sea legs under them Monday on the baseball diamond.
Iola spotted visiting Anderson County a 3-0 lead by the middle of the first inning before responding in a big way. The Mustangs scored six in the bottom of the inning, one in the second and five in the third of the Class 4A regional tournament.
Tyler Clubine’s single to right field in the bottom of the fifth ended the game via the 10-run mercy rule, 14-4.
“I felt good about our ability to come back, but you just can’t go down 3-0 like that in a regional game,” Iola coach Mark Percy said. “You never know if the other gets hot or you just hit line drives at fielders and come up empty.”
In Monday’s case, neither worry came to fruition.
While The Mustangs launched a few blasts from the batter’s box, most of the damage came from forced Anderson County mistakes.
The Bulldogs committed five errors, most coming from fielders hurrying throws in an attempt to gun down Mustang baserunners.
“We take pride in that: running hard and challenging the defense,” Percy said.
Levi Ashmore and Mason Coons both reached in the first inning on fielding errors by Anderson County’s shortstop to start the Mustang scoring. Aaron Barclay followed with a run-scoring single. Cole Morrison did the same two batters later. Drew Faulhaber was hit by a pitch, leading to Eric Heffern’s RBI single. Ashmore capped the rally with a two-run double, putting the Mustangs on top 6-3.
Pinch runner Jacob Rhoads was pivotal for Iola’s second-inning tally. He ran for Derrick Weir, who opened the inning by getting hit by a pitch. Rhoads stole second before advancing to third on the catcher’s throwing error. That led to Barclay’s RBI ground ball.
Ashmore’s second two-run double of the game started the scoring in the third. Trent Latta and Barclay followed with RBI singles, giving Iola a 12-3 lead. Latta’s single an inning later scored Faulhaber to push the lead to 13-3.
The Bulldogs pushed across a run to cut the gap to 13-4, extending the game to the bottom of the fifth, where Weir walked and Barclay singled, leading to Clubine’s game-ending hit.
Barclay overcame a ragged start, allowing two hits, two walks and two hit batters to go with three strikeouts in three innings. Faulhaber pitched the final two innings, allowing two hits and three walks in two innings, with three strikeouts.
Offensively, Barclay had three hits and Ashmore had four RBIs, courtesy of his two doubles. Latta singled twice, as did Faulhaber. Heffern and Morrison each had singles.
“Aaron did a nice job bouncing back after his tough start,” Percy said. “He just didn’t have his best stuff today. We were happy he gave us three innings.”
Iola (16-0) advances to take on fourth seed Paola, which edged Chanute 1-0 in eight innings of their opener. First pitch for the Mustang-Panther matchup in the regional semifinal is at 2 p.m. Thursday in Garnett. The winner advances to the championship game that night.
“I haven’t seen Paola play, but from what I’ve heard, they’re pretty good,” Percy said. “We’re going to have to bring it.”
Anderson County qualified to play Iola courtesy of its 17-14 slug-fest victory over Prairie View in a play-in game.
In other first-round action, second seed Ottawa cruised past Osawatomie, 11-1, and Fort Scott blanked Louisburg, 4-0. Those two schools will play each other Thursday in the other semifinal.
Mustangs open with romp
