CARBONDALE — The Fillies have taken a very interesting route to their 10-10 regular season record, but now after a sweep of Santa Fe Trail, Iola enters the postseason with plenty of momentum.
“I don’t know if everyone else believed that we could get where we are, but we really did,” Iola coach Chris Weide said. “From me, to coach (Becky Carlson) to all the players, we really thought we could get to a good spot for regionals.”
The Fillies picked up a 4-0 and a 9-3 victory in Carbondale and have now won nine of their final 12 regular season games after starting the year 1-7.
“It is really nice,” Iola senior Jadyn Sigg said. “We haven’t done so well the last couple of years, so this is a big step for the Fillies.”
In game one, sophomore pitcher Sierra Snavely was dominant to begin the game with six no-hit innings.
Snavely’s start kept the Fillies in the game while their offense also struggled to find its footing in the early going and went into the sixth inning in a scoreless tie.
“It is a really long drive up here,” Sigg said. “So I think we were just a little bit tired.”
The sixth inning was the turning point though with the team’s senior leaders jump-starting the offense.
First baseman Riley Murry led off the inning with a double and center fielder opened the scoring with a triple to center field on a 3-1 pitch.
After an out, freshman Kelsey Morrison singled to score Sigg.
Three walks to Kendra Sprague, Nissa Fountain and Chloe Gardner with a single by Madisyn Holloway resulted in two more runs scoring and Iola taking the 4-0 lead that eventually turned into the final score.
Snavely finished the game with one hit allowed — a leadoff single in the seventh — while walking one and striking out nine.
“It you have great pitching — which we do — and you have great defense — which we do — and timing hitting — which is what I like to call it — you can go far in the postseason,” Weide said. “We are streaky, but once we get going we can put four or five runs together. That is a good combination.”
Morrison led the offense with a 3-for-4 game including a double. Morrison is hitting .380 this season now trailing only Sigg’s .418 average for the team lead.
“It is good and it looks great for our future,” Sigg said of the team’s underclassmen.
GAME TWO
The Fillies were able to get off to a great start in the second game with a two-run first inning.
Senior Sydney Wade led off with a walk and Gardner doubled to get both runners in position to score.
The Chargers answered back with two runs in the second inning and one in the third to grab their first lead of the day at 3-2, but the lead was short-lived with Snavely and sophomore Mia Aronson each scoring in the fourth.
Iola carried that 4-3 lead into the sixth inning when they were able to blow the game wide open.
Morrison singled while Sprague and Aronson each walked to start the inning.
Holloway, Gardner and Murry each delivered RBIs, before Sigg sent one over the fence to plate both Gardner and Murry.
A premature high-five caused what would have been Sigg’s third home run of her career to be ruled a triple while Sigg was ruled the third out of the inning.
The rule is that no teammate can touch the runner before she officially crosses the plate and the Fillies violated that with the congratulatory high-five.
“I knew about the rule,” Sigg said. “Umpires usually don’t call that though.”
Regardless, Sigg’s blast gave the team a 9-3 lead and Snavely held the margin there for the win.
Snavely finished the game with three runs allowed on 10 hits with no walks and six strikeouts.
UP NEXT
The Fillies will likely be the two-seed in next Tuesday’s regional tournament in Burlington with a shot for redemption against three-seeded Anderson County, who swept them this season and eliminated them in last year’s regional.
“We are definitely confident, but you can go into regionals 20-0 or 0-20, but if someone plays hot for two games, records are thrown out and everyone has a chance to go to state,” Weide said. “But we are definitely confident in our chances.”
