Iola pounces on Diamondcats for 10-2 victory

The Clintonville Legion baseball team was held to just five hits and could not produce the defensive stops necessary in Thursday’s 10-2 home loss to Iola.

The Diamondcats pulled within four runs in the fifth inning, 6-2, on RBI hits from Jordan Koeppen and Nathan Krueger, but Iola pitcher Nate Korb worked his way out of the inning without further damage.

Korb pitched a complete game for Iola, giving up five hits and two earned runs. He struck out 11 and walked two.

Iola was hot from the start, when Korb led off the first inning with a single. After an error pushed runners to second and third, Cameron Grunwald and Seth Korb each drove in runs.

In the third inning, after an error, Connor Kurki singled to left to make it a 3-0 game. Iola got two more runs in the fourth to push the lead to five.

In the bottom of the fifth, Koeppen tripled off the fence in right field to score Hunter Vollmer for the Diamondcats’ first run. Krueger followed it up with an RBI single to left.

Kurki drove in his second run of the game in the sixth inning, scoring Grunwald to push the lead back up to five.

Iola, which scored in six of the seven innings, used four walks and a single to score three runs in the seventh to expand the lead to eight.

Vollmer gave up 12 hits and five earned runs over six innings on the mound. He walked two batters and did not record a strikeout.

Chad Bork threw the seventh inning and walked four batters. He allowed three earned runs.

Kyle Finger’s infield single to lead off the second inning was the Diamondcats’ lone hit through the first four innings. After Finger advanced to second on an errant pickoff attempt, Korb struck out three of the next four batters to end the threat.

Clintonville (11-5) heads to Antigo on Friday before hosting Wittenberg on Monday to finish the regular season.

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E

Iola 2 0 1 2 1 1 3 10 13 1

Clintonville 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 5 3