The 2018 Harlan Community baseball team added to a growing trophy case last week, making the program’s eighth consecutive state tournament appearance and reaching the championship game for the fourth year in a row, ending with an 11-1 loss to Davenport Assumption on Saturday.

 DES MOINES (July 27) -- Over the years, Harlan Community has dealt with its fair, or unfair, share of tough breaks while playing in the State Baseball Tournament at Principal Park. On Friday afternoon, the Cyclones may have got one back. Clinging to a one-run lead in the top of the seventh - the tying and lead runs on base for Waverly-Shell Rock - HCHS finished the game with a unique and fortunate double play to hold off the Go-Hawks 7-6 in a

 DES MOINES (July 24) -- Some might argue that Harlan Community was darn lucky to win Tuesday night’s Class 3A state baseball tourney quarterfinal vs.

 DES MOINES (July 27) -- The Class 3A state baseball semifinals will include three of the same teams from a year ago when action commences late Friday morning at Principal Park. At 11:00 a.m., top-ranked and second-seeded Harlan Community (32-3) will face this year’s newcomer, seventh-ranked and sixth-seeded Waverly-Shell Rock (34-7).

 DES MOINES (July 24) -- You know you’ve got a deep state tournament field when teams with the recent baseball tradition of Solon and Waverly-Shell Rock aren’t even seeded in the top four. That’s the type of competition Harlan Community will be up against this week when the Class 3A State Baseball Tournament gets underway at Principal Park in Des Moines. Of the eight teams in 3A, seven have combined to win 21 state championships, led by Davenp

Assumption, Davenport (31-10, #1 seed)State Appearance: 16th.State Tournament Record: 34-5.Last Appearance: 2017 (1st).State Titles: 10 (1982, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2004, ‘06, ‘08, ‘14, ‘17).State Runner-Up: 3 (2002, ‘07, ‘13).Final IBCA Ranking: 3rd.2018 Tourney Trail to Des Moines:-- Assumption 10, Maquoketa 0 (6)-- Assumption 1, Dubuque Wahlert 0-- Assumption 4, Central DeWitt 2Coach: Billy Argo (537-201).

 CEDAR FALLS (July 21) -- It was a remarkable eight-day stretch for recent Harlan Community graduate Nick Foss. But then again, Foss has been a remarkable Cyclone student-athlete for some time now. Doing his best Bo Jackson impersonation, Foss split time between baseball and football - Harlan and Cedar Falls - last week and capped it off with an impressive performance in the 2018 Iowa Shrine Bowl All-Star Football Classic. Foss, who finished h

 DES MOINES -- Harlan Community seniors Keaton Jones and Drew Voge were both named to at least one all-state boys soccer team in June after leading the Cyclones to a 16-3 season and an appearance in the Class 2A substate finals. Jones was named to the Des Moines Register’s All-Iowa Boys Soccer Team (Class 2A) as the goal keeper and was invited to attend the Des Moines Register Sports Awards on June 23 at Wells Fargo Arena.

 HARLAN (July 18) -- Not so long ago, Brett Sears and the words pitch efficiency didn’t always belong in the same sentence. It’s hard to argue with Sears’ 27-3 career record for the Harlan Community baseball team, but sometimes striking out a lot of hitters requires throwing a lot of pitches. Not on Wednesday. Putting together one of the best outings of his four-year varsity career, the Cyclone junior ace outdueled Winterset sophomore Casey Yo

 HARLAN (July 16) -- On a night when Harlan Community committed three throwing errors and four all told, the biggest defensive play of the game involved two perfect relays that stifled Denison-Schleswig’s rapidly-gaining momentum. Three-run home runs by seniors Jared Moser and Nick Foss also proved pivotal as the top-ranked Cyclones held off a late-game Monarch charge to win 10-5 in Monday’s Class 3A, District 15 baseball final at Jim Goeser F

 WEST DES MOINES -- Area graduates Drew Voge of Harlan Community and Rudy Herrera of AHSTW both played for the victorious West squad after being selected for the 2018 Iowa High School All-Star Soccer Game on Saturday, June 16. Also known as the East-West All-Star Cup, the game was played at Valley Stadium and hosted by the Des Moines Menace of the Premier Development League, with support from Soccer Master and the Iowa High School Soccer Coach

 HARLAN (July 14) -- It’s not easy racking up 14 strikeouts in five innings, but Harlan Community junior ace Brett Sears just kept on missing bats during Saturday night’s Class 3A, District 15 baseball semifinal at Jim Goeser Field. Sears mowed down 14 of the 19 Carroll batters he faced and the Cyclone hitters eventually got to Tiger lefty Nick Haberl in an 11-1, five-inning win pushed back 24 hours due to rain.

 COON RAPIDS (July 12) -- For four innings on Thursday, pitcher Alex Lingle and IKM-Manning were able to stay away from the big inning defensively and hang with Audubon in a Class 1A district baseball semifinal. Unfortunately for the Wolves, when momentum started to swing the way of the Wheelers, a 1-0 game quickly snowballed into an early finish. Putting 12 of its last 13 batters on base safely, Audubon plated five runs in the fifth and four

 HARLAN (July 11) -- The Harlan Community baseball team closed the books on another outstanding regular season here Wednesday night, beating Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson 8-3 as Brett Sears homered twice and Logan Klaassen pitched a complete game. Now the fun part begins as the number one-ranked Cyclones (28-3) gear up for a potential run to their eighth consecutive State Baseball Tournament as the top seed in Class 3A, Substate 8. Harlan’s

 ANITA (July 10) -- For six and one-third innings Tuesday, the tougher the situation was the better Cole Burmeister pitched for Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton. Locked in a district duel with Coon Rapids-Bayard’s Christian Cook, the Spartan junior scored his team’s only run in the third and blanked the Crusaders for six gutsy innings on the mound. Unfortunately for Exira-EHK, Burmeister’s gem went for naught in the end as a high pitch count, some sh