(Harlan) Landon Kaufman’s walk-off single in the bottom of the sixth inning sealed a 12-2 win over Atlantic in a Class 3A Substate quarterfinal at Harlan on Friday night.
Harlan scored 12 runs on 15 hits. Stephen Leinen picked up the win on the mound allowing two runs on four hits, 12 strikeouts, and three walks.
The Trojans kept the game close through the first four innings. Easton O’Brien belted a two-out double in the top of the first inning and came home on Carter Pelletts RBI grounder resulting in an error. Harlan responded with one run in the bottom of the frame on Jozef Reisz’s RBI base hit to tie the game at 1-1.
Matthew Sorfenden singled and scored on an error giving the Cyclones a 2-1 edge in the second, and extended the lead to 3-1 on Cael Goshorn’s RBI single in the third.
The Trojans battled back in the top of the fourth. Xavier Darrow and Clevi Johnson reached base on back-to-back walks, and Tanner O’Brien blasted an RBI single, driving home Darrow to make it a 3-2 game. But Harlan answered with one more run in the bottom of the fourth on Quinn Koester’s RBI single, giving the Cyclones a 4-2 cushion.
The big break in the game came in the Cyclone’s side of the fifth. Harlan separated themselves with five runs on five hits. The blow came off the bats of Cade Sears, who blasted a two-RBI triple, and Sorfenden’s two-RBI single. Stephen Leinen led off the inning with a double, Jozef Reisz Quinn Koesters added to the offense with base hits, and the Cyclones inflated its lead to 9-2.
Harlan polished off the contest with three runs in the bottom of the sixth; Reisz singled, Brett Heese reached on an error, Sofenden served up a double, scoring Reisz and Heese, and Landon Kaufman, the ninth hitter in the Cyclones batter order hit a soft liner to right to seal the 12-2 win.
The Cyclones will play Storm Lake in a Substate semifinal on Monday.
