Keota’s Clarahan throws 21 strikeouts in baseball win

KEOTA — A significant event happened in the Keota sports world last week, but no one noticed until the game ended. The Eagles played four home games, winning all four. Four was not the number of the week for the Keota baseball team, however.

The number 21 was significant because that is the number of outs in a seven-inning high school game and that is the number of strikeouts Colten Clarahan recorded against Iowa Valley in a 7-0 victory over South Iowa Cedar foe Iowa Valley.

“In the dugout after the game, I asked if I had 13 or 14 strikeouts because 14 is the school record and Carson Sprouse had 13 the night before (in a complete game two-hitter), so I thought maybe I had tied Carson,” Clarahan said. “When I heard I had 21, my jaw dropped. I was ecstatic, it was amazing.”

The junior right-hander is now the owner of a school record that likely can never be broken, possibly tied.

The Eagles also won 7-1 over Lone Tree, 10-3 over Winfield-Mount Union and 13-3 against Tri-County.

”No one on the team was thinking about the strikeouts and instead were focused on the no-hitter he had,“ Keota head coach Dakota McCombs said. ”Once the no-hitter was broken, strikeouts weren't brought up until after the game when we looked at his stats.“

Apparently, it is assumed that Clarahan on the mound means domination.

“It shows the type of player that Colten is that he can do something completely amazing on the field and no one notices,” Keota head baseball coach Dakota McCombs said. “Because its just another regular game for him, and he is so humble that it's hard to get him to talk about his success.”

“It shows the type of player that Colten is that he can do something completely amazing on the field and no one notices because its just another regular game for him and he is so humble that it's hard to get him to talk about his success.” — Keota head baseball coach Dakota McCombs

The Eagles needed that domination as they had just five hits in the game, and two were by Clarahan.

“Colten worked the entire strike zone and changed speeds throughout the entire performance,” McCombs said. “His one hit that he gave up was a high fastball to lead off the (fourth inning) at bat and it was lined to right center for a single.”

A perfect game was never an option because of what happened to the first batter of the game.

“I was throwing him a curve ball and it didn’t break,” Clarahan said of hitting the batter.

Maybe that could be a future strategy. Plunk the first batter and make the rest of the lineup nervous and prone to strikeouts.