Prep Baseball: Mustangs get hot at just the right time

INDEPENDENCE - They want you to know they're not that bad.They point out they began the season 5-0. They tell you about losing six games by one or two runs.Don't look at their record. Look at what the Independence Mustangs have done the last two weeks.“We started off the season (strong),” said senior pitcher-first baseman Austin Pink. “We kind of fell off after that. We lost focus in the middle of the season. But the one thing Coach (Jim) Arnold did was he pulled us aside before districts and said we were starting a new season.”A new season that has been surprisingly extended. Independence is in the state tournament for the first time since 1996, taking on top-seeded Glenwood in a Class 3A quarterfinal today at noon at Principal Park in Des Moines.Forget about that 14-23 record. Indee is unbeaten in its last three games, and that's all you need to know.“We have talent,” Arnold said. “We just kind of stubbed our feet a few times in the regular season. Little mistakes here and there in games really cost us ... Our record could easily be 23-14 instead. We've lost so many (close) games.”Independence edged Vinton-Shellsburg in its first district game, 4-3, then smacked Center Point-Urbana, 9-4. It scored four runs in the first inning of its substate final against Marion and used that momentum to go on to a very surprising 13-3, six-inning victory.Marion beat Indee twice in the regular season. Then, again, so had Vinton-Shellsburg.CP-U and Independence split their Wamac Conference doubleheader.“That first inning against Marion was huge,” said Pink, who threw a complete game. “That really gave me a lot of confidence on the mound. I'm not sure if Marion was overlooking us at all or not. You've got to be ready to play in a game like that, you know?”Indee certainly was.“This is just pretty crazy,” said senior shortstop Keaton Hosch.Pink has picked up six of Independence's 14 wins, sporting a 2.33 earned run average. Junior outfielder Blaize Cabell leads the Mustangs with a .480 batting average, followed by Hosch (.439) and Pink (.348).Hosch and Pink will play football beginning this fall for Upper Iowa.“We were really focused on the bus ride to the Marion game,” Arnold said. “It was almost scary to see how focused they were. We hadn't seen that.“We've got nothing to lose. We took that mentality. We've got to play that way again.”