The payoff time for hard work has now arrived for the Indianola Academy Colonels baseball team.
With the postseason now at hand, the young squad’s task is to now play three more weeks of excellent baseball if they are to earn a state AAA championship.
With their State AAA playoff competition set to begin next Tuesday, Head Coach Clete Putnam’s 20-7 Colonels will open postseason action with a challenging road trip to nemesis Starkville Academy, owner of a 21-6 record.
However, the Colonels played one final tune-up game Thursday when they travelled to AAAA member Magnolia Heights School in Senatobia. First pitch was scheduled for 5 p.m. against the highly competitive Chiefs.
As for their upcoming best-of-three playoff series with Starkville Academy, first pitch of next Tuesday’s game is scheduled to be thrown at 6 p.m.
The series will then be concluded next Thursday on the IA field where a potential double header will be played.
Both teams are accustomed to success this spring as the Volunteers come into the postseason as the No. 2 seed from District 2AAA while the Colonels are the reigning District 1AAA champions.
Historically this season, these two teams have played each other three times. With all the games occurring in early March, the Volunteers claimed two wins (6-4, 5-1) while the Colonels earned a 2-0 decision over the Starkville club.
Should the Colonels claim this upcoming series, they will move on to the AAA semifinals the week of May 7 against this week’s Heritage Academy (Columbus) versus Bayou Academy (Cleveland) series winner. Interim play prior to the playoffs occurred this past week and the most recent action saw the Colonels drop a Tuesday night 2-1 road decision to a very good Tri-County Academy squad in Flora.
Meanwhile last Thursday’s play resulted in a 7-4 road loss to Washington School of Greenville.
In their loss to Tri-County Academy, the District 2AA champions, the Colonels saw a 1-0 lead disappear in the bottom of the seventh inning. This game-clinching rally occurred when the Rebels sandwiched a double between a pair of singles to plate the winning runs.
Those seventh inning hits were three of the only five hits generated by Tri-County Academy batters as starting pitcher Josh Hill’s six innings of work included nine strikeouts while giving up one earned run.
At the plate the junior pitcher aided his own cause with three of IA’s four hits, all singles and one of which drove the Colonels’ only run across the plate in the third inning.
In the Colonels’ loss to Washington School last Thursday, a six run first inning by the Generals put the IA squad into an early hole.
Despite outhitting the Generals 6-4 in the game and receiving an excellent relief pitching performance from James Hill, the Colonels suffered the loss.
IA would plate their runs in the fifth frame behind four hits, a rally highlighted by Josh Hill’s two RBI single.
Meanwhile, on the mound James Hill’s 5.3 innings of relief work allowed only one hit and one earned run while striking out two batters.
