WESTLAKE — Iowa entered Thursday’s District 4-3A game on a two-game slide after falling behind early twice to Jennings.

But the Yellow Jackets got it right this time and turned a tied score into a 15-2, five-inning run-rule win.

“That is an underrated team,” Iowa head coach Daniel Hennigan said of the Westlake Rams. “They are going to do the right things and play really hard.

“The thing we have to focus on is weather the storm, good things will happen and be patient. At times we haven’t done that this year. We had a lot more runners on base. We have been trying to tweak our offense a little bit and find what works for us.

“We had runners on base in one of the Jennings games all over the place and didn’t quite get it done.”

Cole Corbello broke the 2-2 tie with Iowa’s first hit of the game, an RBI single, to left field to bring home Tyler Dartez.

Iowa added three runs in the fourth, highlighted by a two-run, two-out double off the bat of Koltin LeBleu, and eight runs in the fifth inning.

After allowing two runs in the first inning, Iowa’s Jacob Kershaw shut out the Rams and struck out the final three batters he faced. He finished with five strikeouts, one walk and scattered four hits.

Corbello and Koltin LeBleu had three RBIs apiece for Iowa. Landon Langley went 2-for-4 with two runs, an RBI and two stolen bases. Lucas Alexander was 2-for-4 with three runs and two RBIs.

Westlake matched Iowa (13-8, 3-2) early when Ethan Koonce hit an RBI double and scored on an error to tie the score at 2-2. But the Rams pitching staff struggled with 11 walks and six hit batsmen.

After winning seven of eight games to get into the top 10 of the Class 3A power ratings, Westlake (12-10, 2-3) has lost three consecutive games.

“Consistency. We are kind of riding the roller coaster right now,” Westlake head coach Blake Reed said. “It is hard to keep ourselves on top.

“We are young, starting six or seven underclassmen. We have a talented group of guys, but we are lacking a little bit of chemistry right now. We are struggling with some stuff, but I think we have plenty of time to tighten things up and get back to playing the ball we need to play.”

Iowa will host Westlake at 1 p.m. Saturday in its first game on its home field since before Hurricane Laura struck Southwest Louisiana in 2020.