12 K Performance by Leinen Gives Cyclone BB Substate Win Over Atlantic, 12-2

Harlan Community's Stephen Leinen (7-7-23)

12 K Performance by Leinen Gives Cyclone BB Substate Win Over Atlantic, 12-2 –

(7-7-23) – Third time’s the charm for the Cyclones.

After having to go to extra innings to get wins in two previous contests with Atlantic, Harlan Community need just 6 innings to top their Hawkeye 10 rivals by a final of 12-2 in the Class 3A Substate 8 quarterfinals on Friday.

Stephen Leinen was stellar on the mound for the Cyclones, striking out 12 in 6 innings of work and holding to the Trojans to 4 hits and 2 runs.

“The offspeed (pitch) was working well before hand and it’s been working well, I wanna say, 3 games before,” Leinen told KNOD Sports after the game. “That was pretty much the go-to pitch between that and the fastball.”

After giving up an unearned run in the 1st, Harlan Community tied it on an RBI single Jozef Reisz in the bottom half of the inning, then scored on an error in the 2nd and a Cael Goshorn RBI single in the 3rd to take a 3-1 lead.

The Cyclones would break the game open in the 5th as they’d score 5 times, with Matthew Sorfonden driving in 2 runs and Quinn Koesters driving in another to open a 9-2 lead. Sloppy play by the Trojans in the 6th allowed the winning runs to score.

Harlan Community Coach Heath Stein likes how his team was hitting up and down the lineup.

“We hit ball hard and then as the game went on we kept putting good approaches and good swings on it and we were able to get 12 runs.”

The Cyclones got 3 hits apiece from Reisz and Sorfonden, who improve to 20 and 14 on the season with match-up against Storm Lake scheduled on Monday. (KNOD 105.3FM)

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