Big innings carry HCHS to baseball sweep of Tigers

 RED OAK (June 27) -- Riley Kohles pitched four innings of shutout ball in game one and Derec Weyer hit his first varsity home run with six RBI in the night cap Thursday as Harlan Community swept Red Oak 14-3 and 17-9 in a Hawkeye Ten baseball doubleheader.
 The first game lasted just five innings as the Cyclones put together a five-run third and a six-run fifth to take a 14-0 lead. Game two was tied 6-6 after two and HCHS only led 10-9 through four innings before pulling away with a three-run fifth and four-run sixth.
 The sweep improved the fourth-ranked (3A) Cyclones to 18-4 overall and 12-4 in conference play while Red Oak fell to 7-15 and 6-12.
HCHS 14, Red Oak 3 (5)
 Kohles improved to 2-0 with four scoreless innings of one-hit ball, throwing just 58 pitches.
 Offensively, Brett Sears paced the Cyclones’ nine-hit attack by going 3-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and two RBI. Six others players chipped in a single, including Connor Bruck, Isaiah Ahrenholtz, Weyer and Jon Owens, who all scored twice.
HCHS 17, Red Oak 9
 Weyer’s breakout 4-for-5 performance included a solo homer leading off the third as well as an RBI single in the first and two-run singles in the fifth and sixth for six total runs-batted-in.
 The big inning once again served the Cyclones well as they scored four runs each in the first, third and sixth to counter Red Oak’s three-spots in the first, second and fourth. HCHS finished with 16 hits (14 singles) and also took advantage of 11 free passes (8 walks, 3 HBP).
 In addition to Weyer’s big game, Luke Schaben went 3-for-4 with a double, three runs and three RBI and Moser was 3-for-6 with three runs scored. Sears went 2-for-3 - giving him five hits in the twin bill - walked two times, scored three runs and had three RBI.
 Moser, the last of three HCHS pitchers, earned the win behind three scoreless frames to improve to 2-0. He allowed just one hit, walked one and struck out four.