CHANUTE — The Post 15 Indians were dealt a tough hand on Thursday night in Chanute when they opened the Double-A American Legion baseball season against last season’s Triple-A state runner-up.
The Indians have played well against Chanute in the past and seemed poised to make an early season statement against their southern rivals, but the Indians were extremely hampered without several key players.
Center fielder Isaac Vink, shortstop Daylon Splane, pitcher Ben Cooper and catcher Casen Barker were all unavailable to play and ace pitcher Derek Bycroft was relegated to just playing the field as his arm recovers from a taxing high school season.
With those absentees gutting the middle of the Indians defensive alignment, the team fell 6-1 and 2-1 in a sweep.
“I think we played great,” Iola coach Rick Vink said. “This is a team that beat us three of four times last year… Overall we did fine, considering who we were missing.”
In the first game, the Indians struggled to get any momentum against former Humboldt Cub and current Allen Community College Red Devil pitcher Jake Haviland.
Haviland held the Indian offense to just three hits in the 6-1 victory.
Bycroft led the fourth inning off with a walk, followed by a single from Haviland’s former teammate Lance Daniels.
Ethan Tavarez flew out to center field and Kane Rogers was retired on strikes for the first two outs of the inning but Bycroft and Daniels advanced to second and third for Cal Leonard with two outs.
Leonard singled and Bycroft scored easily.
Vink sent Daniels to challenge the Chanute defense and it appeared that Daniels slid in safely ahead of the throw home. The umpire did not see it the same way, however, and called Daniels out to end the inning.
Ethan Tavarez started for the Indians on the mound and threw four innings with four earned runs and two unearned runs. He finished with four hits allowed and four walks with five strikeouts.
“Ethan threw well,” Vink said. “We had some errors behind him.”
Darius Greenawalt pitched two shutout innings in relief for Iola. He allowed three hits with one walk.
“Darius is going to throw strikes a lot of the time and the only problem he has is when runners are on base,” Vink said. “Tonight, he did a good job, held runners and got a double play to get us out of a situation. I am happy for the kid, because he worked hard in his four years of high school and I was happy to see him get so playing time.”
The second game — a five-inning game — turned into a pitching battle with Leonard toeing the rubber for the Indians.
