Cyclones rally three times to beat Kuemper

 HARLAN -- Win or lose, the Harlan Community baseball team needed a battle like the one it got from Kuemper Catholic Tuesday night at Jim Goeser Field.
 Falling behind three separate times during the first six innings, HCHS erased deficits of 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 against Knights ace Tyler Laing, then took its first lead on a pop-up that landed about 40 feet from home plate.
 Three outs later, the top-ranked (3-A) Cyclones were 15-0 - the result of a hard-fought 5-4 victory that came on the heels of 10 previous games decided by an average margin of 10.6 runs.
 Despite the fact that much of their stress was self-induced on Tuesday, when the chips were down these veteran Cyclones showcased some of the heart and will that made them state champs in 2016.
 “That was a really good win for us... just from the standpoint that we were down and came back, then down and came back. The thing that impressed me the most is Laing is pretty good and we had some pretty good swings on him,” said HCHS coach Steve Daeges.
 HCHS, now 12-0 in the Hawkeye Ten, finished the night with three errors, each contributing to an unearned run behind senior pitcher Joshua Cheek. The Knights, meanwhile, committed six errors, none bigger than the ungloved infield popper that allowed Dillon Sears to score the eventual winning run in the bottom of the sixth.