GLENWOOD -- After letting a two-run seventh-inning lead slip away in game one of Thursday’s doubleheader at Glenwood, Harlan Community played much better baseball in the night cap to earn a Hawkeye Ten split with the Rams. Glenwood won the first game, 7-6, on Drake Harrington’s two-out, walk-off three-run double in the bottom of the seventh while HCHS led start to finish in game two and won 8-6. The 2nd-ranked (Class 3-A) Cyclones lost for ju

HARLAN -- Add another name to the short list of Harlan Community baseball players who have hit three home runs in a single game. Derek Schwartz, a 2011 HCHS graduate, hit three home runs at Council Bluffs St. Albert during a July, 2010 game his junior year. Current Cyclone senior Kyle Juhl homered three times vs. Clarinda on June 9 and Matt Daeges went deep three times vs.

 GLENWOOD -- Harlan Community split a varsity softball doubleheader at Glenwood on Thursday, winning the first game 2-1 before dropping the night cap 15-8. The game-one victory snapped a three-game slide for the Cyclones, who finished the night at 7-9 overall and 5-6 in the Hawkeye Ten.

 FORT DODGE -- The Harlan Community softball team placed 14th at the Fort Dodge Invitational over the weekend, finishing 1-3 in games played Friday and Saturday. There were 16 teams in the field. The Cyclones were shut out in back-to-back games Friday, losing to third-ranked (3-A) Solon 12-0 in five innings and Bishop Heelan 13-0 in four.

 UNDERWOOD -- Abbey Youngren smacked her fifth home run of the year and Peyton Gross pitched a five-hit shutout Friday night as the IKM-Manning softball team completed a season sweep of Underwood, 7-0, for its fourth consecutive win. Youngren’s three-run bomb in the top of the first was all the offensive support that Gross (11-4) would need as she struck out 10 and walked two in her five-hitter. The Wolves improved to 11-5 overall and 9-2 in t

 UNDERWOOD -- IKM-Manning’s rally fell one run short at Underwood Friday night as the Eagles held off the Wolves 3-2 in Western Iowa Conference baseball action. Underwood scored one run in each of the first three innings (all unearned) and was able to win behind the five-hit pitching of Alec Leaders (3 walks, 3 strikeouts). IKM-M scored single runs in the fifth and sixth but was unable to get the game tied.

 VAIL -- The Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton softball team improved to 7-2 in Rolling Valley Conference play last week with wins of 9-1 over Coon Rapids-Bayard on Wednesday (at Kimballton) and 11-1 in five innings at Ar-We-Va on Friday night. Maggie Rasmussen pitched a seven-inning four-hitter against the Crusaders, allowing one unearned run, walking zero and striking out five. The Spartan scored five runs in the sixth to blow the game open.

CARROLL -- On a night when Harlan Community matched a season high by striking out eight times, it was a swing-and-a-miss that set the stage for the winning run to score on some savvy base running by Dillon Sears. With HCHS and Kuemper Catholic tied 4-4 in the top of the seventh on Tuesday, Sears ignited the go-ahead rally with a one-out double to right-center field.

 HARLAN -- The Harlan Community softball team had Class 2-A’s third-ranked team on the ropes Wednesday night but was unable to land the knockout blow at H.