On July 15, George Blake pitched seven innings, allowed one hit, and led Indianola to a substate championship and a spot in the Iowa high school state baseball tournament.
Exactly one week later, on July 22, he pitched seven innings and got his no-hitter in an 8-1 win over Southeast Polk. It was the first no-hitter at the state tournament since 2020. Now he and his teammates have pushed Indianola into the state semifinals for the first time since 1969.
“Just pounding the zone, trusting my pitching coach; he’s calling pitches, and I’m trusting him,” Blake said. “Getting ahead, pounding the zone and trusting my catcher got me the advantage today.”
After the July 15 substate win over Waukee Northwest, Blake and his teammates went on a six-day break he said, where they just got away from baseball and swam in his pond, jumping off his 12-foot dock.
“We are always together,” Blake said. “If it’s swimming at my cousin Bo’s house or my house, we are always together hanging out. There is not a day that goes by we aren’t hanging out together. Golfing at my house or Bo’s house, we are building relationships.”
Blake didn’t allow a base runner until the fourth inning when he hit Lincoln Patterson. And on the offensive side, he had two RBIs and came around to score in his first three at-bats.
Going into the seventh inning with the no-hitter, Blake walked two batters and hit two batters, allowing one run to score. But after 101 pitches, Blake got the final strikeout to secure the no-hitter and, more importantly, the win.
Zach Benge, Dallas Harlan and Asher Brueck each had two hits for Indianola. In the fifth and sixth innings, the team scored five offensive runs, giving Blake the insurance he needed.
Southeast Polk and Indianola aren’t two teams familiar with playing baseball late in July — in fact, this is Indianola’s first state tournament appearance since 2022 and just fifth all-time. The Rams returned to the tournament for the first time since 2023 and are trying to bring back momentum from the 2014 and 2015 seasons when the team won back-to-back 4A state titles.
A regular-season doubleheader on July 3 between the two teams finished with an Indianola sweep, 3-2 and 3-1. Low scoring is the name of the game for Indianola, as they hold the lowest team ERA in Class 4A at 2.04. Blake continued that dominance against the Rams in the state quarterfinals.
Southeast Polk starting pitcher Alex Williams came into the game with a 1.79 ERA, and Blake with a 1.49 ERA. And the two hurlers delivered.
Through three innings, the two pitchers combined for just four hits and two runs.
Indianola led 3-0 through five innings behind Blake’s nearly perfect outing in his state tournament debut; the offense gave him the insurance needed with a combined five runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
The mentality now for Indianola is to claim the state championship, and it has the team chemistry that, possibly, no other team left standing has.
They’ll put that chemistry to the test in the state semifinals when they face Valley on Thursday, July 23, at 7 p.m. with a trip to the state title game on the line.
“I knew coming back from last year we had a lot of returners, so I had a feeling this team could go pretty far,” Benge said. This is the best team I’ve been a part of and the most fun.”
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Indianola throws no-hitter, advances in Iowa state baseball tournament
Reporting by Preston Zbroszczyk , Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Preston Zbroszczyk , Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
