The weather gods favored Iola High’s Mustangs Tuesday night against Prairie View. After winning game one 6-1, Iola was ahead 10-8 in the top of the sixth inning when the umpire stopped the game for lightning. During the 30-minute wait required when lightening is seen, more lit up the sky. At that point the game was called and the Mustangs got the win.
“We could have started in another half an hour, but another storm could be on its way,” coach Mark Percy said. “As far as I know, it’s a complete game. From what I understand, it made it through 4½ innings. We’ll take a win any way we can, but we’ve got to play better than that.”
When the game was called, Prairie View had runners on first and third with two outs and were down 10-8. The Mustangs did catch a break by being ahead, but no one knows what could have happened.
The Buffalos started the game with a 4-0 lead after the top of the first inning. The Mustangs fought all the way back to tie it up.
Ethan Scheibmeir started the inning with a walk. Keanen Badders followed with a base hit. After an out, back-to-back doubles from Coleson Wiggin and Ethan Sigg brought the game to within one at 4-3. Kohl Endicott followed with a walk and Brett Taylor finished the inning with an RBI-single to tie the game.
Prairie View came right back, scoring two more runs in the second inning to take a 6-4 lead. Iola answered with three runs.
Badders reached on an error with one out. Wiggin followed by drawing a walk. Sigg was hit by a pitch during the next at bat to load the bases. A wild pitch preceded Endicott 2-RBI triple to the left field wall.
In the third inning, Prairie View tied the game at 7-7 because of an Iola error. Percy said the teams’ fielding in game two was subpar.
Iola’s bats were able to get two more runs in the bottom half of third inning. Badders reached on a single and Wiggin hit him in on his second double of the night. Wiggin eventually scored on a fielder’s choice. Iola led 9-7 after the third.
In the fourth inning, neither team plated a run across home for the first time in the game. Scheibmeir scored in the fifth inning on an RBI from Badders, who hit into a fielder’s choice. Iola led 10-7 heading into the sixth inning when the game was eventually called.
Prairie View scored a run in the top half of the inning and had two men on with two outs.
Wiggin, who came in to relieve Drew Faulhaber in the fourth inning, only gave up the one run in the top of the sixth. He helped the team settle down in the field.
“A game like that is hard to get in the flow because we just weren’t playing well, period. Part of that goes to pitching and we weren’t making plays we should be making,” Percy said. “We were flat in the field. We were popping out balls that we should be squaring up and getting hits. The good thing was we kept coming back, but it just wasn’t a very pretty game. Hopefully, we play better than that because I wasn’t really pleased with it.”
In game one, Iola earned the 6-1 win. Scheibmeir pitched another gem. He went the distance, pitching all seven innings, gave up one run (in the seventh inning), had seven strikeouts, gave up two hits and walked three.
“It took us a little bit to get moving. We had some really good innings, we just couldn’t get that big hit,” Percy said. “We kept putting them back to back to back which is something we wanted to see. We were pleased with that.”
Iola took the lead in the third inning. Ben Cooper started it off with a single. Scheibmeir beat out a swinging bunt and got to first base for the infield single. Badders hit in Cooper on a fielder’s choice.
A three-run sixth inning put the game out of reach for the Buffalos. Scheibmeir had a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded which scored Brett Taylor. Faulhaber and Sigg each hit RBI-singles to finish out the inning.
The Mustangs (4-0) play at Anderson County on Tuesday.
Mustangs outpace Buffalos
