One year ago, the Indianola Academy Colonels baseball team dropped their first game of the State AAA Playoffs; and then reeled off six consecutive wins to claim the state title.
Following their 4-0 Tuesday evening loss to visiting Heritage Academy of Columbus, the 14-7-1 Colonels are once again finding their mettle tested.
That test begins today at 5 p.m. when the IA squad will attempt to sweep a road trip doubleheader from the Patriots in order to keep their season alive.
Should the Colonels prevail today, they will move on to next week’s semifinal round of the playoffs against the winner of the Bayou Academy – Starkville Academy series also being played this week.
Meanwhile, Tuesday’s contest pitted a pair of Mississippi State University pitching signees against each other; and when the dust cleared in this well-pitched game a total of eight hits were earned, 20 batters struck out, while only two reached by way of a walk.
Unfortunately for IA, a poverty of hits led to being shutout as Josh Hill’s pair of singles were all the Colonels could muster in this contest.
Hill, who was also the tough-luck loser on the mound, completed the game with 11 strikeouts and one walk while surrendering six hits and two earned runs.
This playoff loss came on the heels of last Friday’s doubleheader with Bayou Academy of Cleveland.
With the district title on the line, the Colonels initially kept their championship hopes alive with an 8-2 opening game victory.
However, despite outhitting the Colts 7-5 in the nightcap, the Colonels saw their district title hopes dashed as a result of their 6-5 extra inning loss.
With the score knotted at 5 runs apiece in the bottom of the eighth frame, the Colts used a walk and a pair of bunt singles to load the bases with no outs.
Following a pop-up out to first base and with all IA fielders drawn in, the game ended following a Bayou Academy walk-off single to right field.
This loss was absorbed by IA despite a stellar relief pitching performance by James Hill; the junior’s five innings of work yielded only two earned runs while scattering four hits, striking out four batters, and walking two more.
At the plate, Will Davis and Josh Hill (2 RBI’s) led the attack with a pair of doubles apiece while Wesley Lester, Thomas Putnam, and Logan White contributed an RBI single apiece.
In the opening game with Bayou Academy, the Colonels received a complete game six hitter from Davis on the mound.
The senior only allowed the Colts a pair of first inning runs before spinning a shutout the remaining six innings of the game.
Davis would ultimately strikeout six Bayou Academy hitters while not issuing a free pass in the contest.
Meanwhile, the Colonels struck for three runs in each of the first pair of innings to take a 6-2 lead into the seventh frame.
At that point Reed Junkin sent a fastball sailing over the left-center field fence; the two-run blast took the score to its final margin.
The Colonels hammered a dozen hits in this game and eight of nine IA batters collected at least one hit; all of which were singles except for Junkin’s home run.
Josh Hill paced this attack with his four singles while Junkin picked up the first of his three RBIs in the game with a single.
Also, driving in runs were Lester, Putnam, and White (2 RBIs).
