Spartans make quick work of Tigers in district opener

 AUDUBON -- With a potential gauntlet of tough games looming, Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton’s district baseball opener vs. Woodbine Tuesday was essentially the calm before the storm.
 Taking nothing for granted, the 5th-ranked Spartans handled their business with ease in a Class 1-A, District 15 quarterfinal at Audubon, scoring 11 second-inning runs and clobbering the Tigers 16-0 in a game stopped after four innings.
 Exira-EHK (22-1) finished the game with just five hits, four runs-batted-in and very few balls hit out of the infield, but Woodbine struggled to provide much resistance. The Tigers, who finished 3-15, committed six errors, walked five batters, hit four more and threw four run-scoring wild pitches during one stretch.
 Alex Amaral (5-1) and Cole Burmeister combined on an abbreviated one-hitter as the Spartans kept their pitch counts low and all arms available for Thursday night’s district semifinal at Coon Rapids vs. CR-B (20-13).
 The winner will face either 8th-ranked Ar-We-Va (17-1) or Audubon (14-10) back in Coon Rapids Saturday at 7:00 p.m. A potential substate finalist from District 16 is 4th-ranked Akron-Westfield (28-2).
 Connor Westergaard led the Spartans at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a first-inning RBI single and two runs scored. Drew Buckholdt hit an RBI triple while Cole Madsen and Josh Pettepier had infield singles.