HC Baseball Falls in Substate Final to Carlisle, 14-5

HC Baseball Falls in Substate Final to Carlisle, 14-5 -

(7-15-26) – A great season falls short of the end goal.

Harlan Community baseball was looking to return to the 3A State Tournament for the first time in two years, but couldn’t slow down the Carlisle offense as the blew the game open late in a 14-5 loss for the Cyclones.

Harlan Community Coach Heath Stein felt that a slow start did his team in against the Wildcats.

“We handed them quite a few free bases right off the get-go, and they obviously made us pay and their starter did a nice job. He was in control most of the night, and it was just, we just dug ourselves too big of a hole and couldn't really, you know, minimize the damage and there's a lot of crooked numbers on that board by them, and it didn't turn out the way we wanted.”

Carlisle staked starter Owen Johnsen to a 4-0 with 2 runs in the 1st, followed by back-to-back homers in the 3rd by Isaac Burk and Carter Berg.

The Cyclones got themselves back into the game with three runs in the top of 4th, capped off by a 2-run shot by starter Jonas Reynolds to pull to within one.

But the Wildcats weren’t done scoring, getting two back in the bottom of the inning and adding two more in the 5th, including Berg’s 2nd solo shot of the game. Carlisle would seal the game with 6 runs in the 6th.

The Cyclones tried to make a comeback in the top of the 6th with solo home runs by Harrison Kjergaard and Cade Nelson. Stein said he was proud of transformation made by Kjergaard this season.

“Absolutely incredible what he did and what kind of player he made himself,” Stein said of his senior outfielder. “It was tough to look at him in the postgame talk just because I know how hard he's worked. I mean, it was like almost every weekend in the summer he would ask me to unlock the shed or unlock the pitching machines so he would get some fly balls and just all the work that he put in to become the player he was, was absolutely incredible.”

Stein hopes that Kjergaard’s type of work ethic will rub off on his returning players.

“So hopefully guys see that and understand that and kind of realize that he was 140 pounds like a year ago or two years ago and made himself into 175 pounds just stud, like great hitter, very smart, very hardworking and got everything he deserved.”

Harlan Community’s baseball season ends at 25-9.

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