Cyclones blank Kuemper 8-0 in H-10 baseball opener

 CARROLL -- So far, so good, for the 2017 Harlan Community baseball team.
 Sophomore Brett Sears and freshman Connor Bruck combined on a four-hit shutout Tuesday night (May 23) and HCHS pulled away in its final two at-bats to shut out Kuemper Catholic, 8-0, in a battle of preseason state-ranked teams.
 Taking advantage of five Kuemper errors and mixing in some timely hits, the top-ranked and defending Class 3-A champion Cyclones (2-0) scored all eight runs during the last four innings of their Hawkeye Ten opener and won big for the second straight night at Merchants Park. They also beat Carroll Public 14-0 on Monday.
 Kuemper senior ace Tyler Laing held HCHS without a hit until the fourth, when two errors and a walk set the stage for Ryan Doran’s RBI double to the right-center field gap to make it 2-0. The Cyclones would push across another run in the fifth, then scored three in the sixth and two in the seventh - four of the runs charged to reliever Michael Mohr.
 HCHS didn’t exactly tear the cover off the ball, but head coach Steve Daeges was pleased with the fact that his lineup consistently put the ball in play and had good at-bats against the hard-throwing Laing, who walked three and struck out two in five-plus innings.