HARLAN (July 14) -- It’s not easy racking up 14 strikeouts in five innings, but Harlan Community junior ace Brett Sears just kept on missing bats during Saturday night’s Class 3A, District 15 baseball semifinal at Jim Goeser Field. Sears mowed down 14 of the 19 Carroll batters he faced and the Cyclone hitters eventually got to Tiger lefty Nick Haberl in an 11-1, five-inning win pushed back 24 hours due to rain.

 COON RAPIDS (July 12) -- For four innings on Thursday, pitcher Alex Lingle and IKM-Manning were able to stay away from the big inning defensively and hang with Audubon in a Class 1A district baseball semifinal. Unfortunately for the Wolves, when momentum started to swing the way of the Wheelers, a 1-0 game quickly snowballed into an early finish. Putting 12 of its last 13 batters on base safely, Audubon plated five runs in the fifth and four

 HARLAN (July 11) -- The Harlan Community baseball team closed the books on another outstanding regular season here Wednesday night, beating Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson 8-3 as Brett Sears homered twice and Logan Klaassen pitched a complete game. Now the fun part begins as the number one-ranked Cyclones (28-3) gear up for a potential run to their eighth consecutive State Baseball Tournament as the top seed in Class 3A, Substate 8. Harlan’s

 ANITA (July 10) -- For six and one-third innings Tuesday, the tougher the situation was the better Cole Burmeister pitched for Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton. Locked in a district duel with Coon Rapids-Bayard’s Christian Cook, the Spartan junior scored his team’s only run in the third and blanked the Crusaders for six gutsy innings on the mound. Unfortunately for Exira-EHK, Burmeister’s gem went for naught in the end as a high pitch count, some sh

 MADRID (July 10) -- Grant Stracke hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning to give IKM-Manning a 4-0 lead and Jared Johnson pitched a four-hitter Tuesday night as the eighth-seeded IKM-Manning baseball team knocked off top-seeded Madrid 4-3 in a Class 1A district quarterfinal. The Tigers scored three runs off Johnson (one earned) during the fifth and sixth innings but the senior ace was able to close the deal and send the Wolves (8-14) to t

 CLARINDA (July 7) -- The AHSTW baseball season ended in heartbreaking fashion last Saturday night when a two-out error in the bottom of the seventh allowed Shenandoah to score the winning run and beat the Vikings 3-2 in a Class 2A district quarterfinal held at Clarinda. AHSTW took a 2-0 lead in the first inning when a bases-loaded walk/wild pitch allowed both Joel Sampson and Sam Porter to score.

 IRWIN (July 9) -- With an inning to go in Monday’s Class 2A, Region 3 softball final, it appeared that IKM-Manning’s veteran squad might have the young Earlham Cardinals right where it wanted them. Still trailing by a run, 4-3, the 2nd-rated Wolves had the heart of their order due up in the bottom of the seventh, needing just three outs to set up their chance for a state-clinching walkoff win. The 15th-rated Cardinals, though, had other ideas

HCHS 4, Des Moines Roosevelt 1 DES MOINES (July 10) -- Senior Jacob Bartley pitched his third straight complete game and had arguably his best outing of the season Tuesday as the Cyclones won 4-1 at Des Moines Roosevelt (15-22). Bartley (6-0) tossed a seven-hitter, walked two and struck out five, following up his 71-pitch performance against Shenandoah last week with an 87-pitch gem against the Class 4A Roughriders. Offensively, Jared Moser ba

 IRWIN (July 6) -- Same round, same town, same teams. And just like two years ago, Panorama came to play for Friday night’s Class 2A regional semifinal at 2nd-ranked IKM-Manning. This time the Wolves were ready too, producing big two-out runs in the early innings, making timely defensive plays behind senior pitcher Peyton Gross and pulling away late to beat the upset-minded Panthers 8-1 at the Irwin softball diamond. Panorama, which finished 1

 GLENWOOD (July 5) -- Harlan Community softball coach Brooke Schaben liked her team’s chances going into Thursday’s Class 4A first round regional game at Glenwood, and history was on her side. On June 14, the Cyclones split a Hawkeye Ten doubleheader against the Rams, totaling double-digit hits against Glenwood pitcher Sydney Biermann in a 10-1 game-one victory. Biermann was also the Rams’ starting pitcher on Thursday, but the difference in re

 LE MARS (July 6) -- Winning 4-0 and 14-9, Harlan Community swept a non-conference baseball doubleheader at Le Mars on Friday, improving to 25-3 with three games left in the regular season. The top-ranked (Class 3A) Cyclones got a combined four-hit shutout from Brett Sears and Riley Kohles in game one, then stormed out to a 13-3 lead and hit seven doubles in the night cap. Le Mars, which has now lost six straight games and 11 out of 15, droppe

 HARLAN (July 5) -- Senior Jacob Bartley used just 71 pitches to hurl a two-hit shutout here Thursday as the Harlan Community baseball team put the finishing touches on its second straight Hawkeye Ten Conference title with an 8-0 win over Shenandoah. HCHS, which won the H-10 crown by two games each over St.

 DES MOINES -- Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton fell one run short against Grand View Christian last Tuesday night (July 3), losing 3-2 in a Class 1A regional softball quarterfinal. The Spartans finished the season at 13-9 overall while the Thunder (17-10) advanced to the Region 7 semifinals and lost to Glidden-Ralston in 10 innings Friday, 9-8. Trailing 3-1 after three, the Spartans scored a run in the fifth but were unable to get the game tied vs.

 UNDERWOOD (July 3) -- AHSTW got the start it wanted last Tuesday, but was unable to finish in a Class 2A regional softball quarterfinal game at Underwood. Trailing 3-0 at the halfway point, the host Eagles tied the score with three runs in the bottom of the fourth and added three unearned runs in the fifth to end the Lady Vikes’ season 6-3. Underwood improved to 16-8 and advanced to Friday night’s Region 2 semifinal at No.

 KIMBALLTON (July 2) -- Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton didn’t waste any time taking care of business vs.