Spartans keep season alive for Coach Petersen

 COON RAPIDS -- As the lone senior on Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton’s baseball team, Brady Hansen wasn’t quite ready for his final season to end, especially without longtime head coach Tony Petersen in the dugout.
 Hansen certainly did his part to keep the season alive, pitching a complete game with nine strikeouts and adding an RBI triple as the Spartans avenged two regular-season losses to Glidden-Ralston with a 7-2 victory in Tuesday’s Class 1-A district quarterfinal at Coon Rapids.
 Exira-EHK (13-6) scored two runs in the top of the first and led wire-to-wire against its Rolling Valley Conference rival, gradually pulling away over the final four innings to set up a clash with 7th-ranked Coon Rapids-Bayard (26-9) on Thursday night.
 Coach Petersen, who plans to retire at the end of the season, was absent from Tuesday’s game as the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners processed the paperwork for his coaching recertification, which was filed too late during the school year. As of Wednesday, it was believed that Petersen would be back with the team for Thursday’s game.