(Gilbert) #3 Gilbert jumped on Harlan early and never looked back in a 7-1 postseason victory at home on Monday. It sets up a presumable matchup of Division I prospects in the substate finals on Wednesday between Creighton commit Easton Johnson for Gilbert and TCU recruit Justin Hackett, of Winterset.
In the win over Harlan the Tigers got a triple from leadoff batter Tucker Hanson in the first inning. The first pitch to the ensuing batter was a wild pitch that scored Hanson. The home squad added two more runs in the 3rd, two in the 5th, and two in the 6th. Hanson finished with two doubles, one triple, and three runs scored. The other bright spot offensively was Eli Eldred who was 2/4 with three RBI. Eldred hit behind Johnson and made Harlan pay for intentionally walking Johnson twice.
Jacob Papesh fired the victory on the mound. In five innings of work he allowed two hits, three walks, and struck out five. The lone run given up came in the 5th inning and was unearned. Kelby Lasher hit a ground ball to short and reached on an error. Three batters later Joey Moser connected on an RBI single. Isaiah Ahrenholtz had the only other hit off of Papesh with a ground-rule double in the 4th.
Sam Vanderpool faced six batters and recorded six outs over the 6th and 7th innings. Alex Monson led off the 7th inning with a single, but the next batter struck out and then shortstop Nick Chasey turned a 6-3 double play to end the game.
Harlan started Franz Reisz and the freshman takes the loss. Reisz gave up four hits, walked three, struck out three, and allowed four runs in his four plus innings. Sophomore Teagon Kasperbauer tossed the final two innings with two hits allowed, five walks, and surrendered three runs. Harlan’s season ends with 16 wins and 16 losses. This will be the first year since 2010 that they don’t play in a substate final.
Gilbert moves to 23-8 ahead of their showdown with 21-11 Winterset on Wednesday. Each team pitched their ace in the first round. Johnson delivered a one hit shutout with one walk and eight K’s against Greene County. Hackett shut out Atlantic on a five inning one-hitter with 12 K’s. Gilbert swept Winterset in the regular season by scores of 7-1 and 1-0.
