Bruck leads young Cyclone squad within a game of state

 HARLAN -- It was a short season, but overall another good one for the Harlan Community baseball team.
 Opening the 2020 schedule three weeks late due to COVID-19 delays, the Cyclones went 14-4 during the next five and a half weeks, tied for third place in the Hawkeye Ten Conference at 8-2 and reached the Class 3A substate final round for the 10th consecutive year.
 The season ended with a bad sixth inning and a 12-2 loss at Dallas Center-Grimes, but the coaching staff got the most out of an HCHS squad that was young overall (only two seniors on the roster) and short on experience in several spots.
 “We had some young kids really step up and do a little better than I thought we were going to do,” said head coach Steve Daeges.
 The Cyclones were led by senior Connor Bruck, who capped a stellar five-year varsity career with a monster final season. Bruck batted .561 from the leadoff spot with 26 runs scored (in just 18 games), 15 RBI, seven doubles, 21 stolen bases and an on-base percentage of .648. His batting average surpassed the single-season school record of .557 set by Zach Daeges in 2002, although Daeges’ body of work included 49 more at-bats (106 compared to 57).
 Bruck did not commit a single error despite playing the majority of his games at shortstop and also finished 4-2 with a 1.70 earned run average on the mound. He finished his career with a sparkling 24-2 record.
 “That’s one of the better years anyone has put together,” Coach Daeges said of Bruck. “He did a nice job, not only offensively but defensively. I don’t recall anyone going through a season without committing an error. He had a heck of a year, and pretty much carried us in a lot of ways."
 Junior Brenden Bartley (.379) and sophomore Joey Moser (.328) also had nice years at the plate, but no one else hit above .250 and the team struck out 139 times (7.7 per game). Still, the Cyclones managed to score a serviceable 6.5 runs a night by drawing their fair share of walks (99) and stealing 77 bases.
 “We really focused on running the bases as well as we could,” Daeges noted. “I thought we took a lot more chances this year on the bases. I know there were times we gambled stealing third and ran a lot of double steals."
 Sophomore Alex Monson (3-0, 2.36 ERA) developed into a dependable number two starter behind Bruck and Bartley (1-1, 2.19 ERA) also had some good moments on the mound during the second half of the season.

2020 Cyclone Baseball Results
CB St. Albert 8, HCHS 3
HCHS 5, Kuemper Catholic 2
HCHS 11, Glenwood 5
HCHS 2, Denison-Schleswig 0
Lewis Central 10, HCHS 0 (5)
HCHS 5, Shenandoah 4 (8)
HCHS 10, Atlantic 2
HCHS 8, Clarinda 7
Sioux City East 5, HCHS 4
HCHS 8, Red Oak 1
HCHS 11, Creston 8
HCHS 5, Dallas Center-Grimes 4
HCHS 1, Denison-Schleswig 0
HCHS 11, CB Abraham Lincoln 3
HCHS 9, CB Thomas Jefferson 7
Class 3A Districts & Substate
HCHS 9, Creston 2
HCHS 13, Denison-Schleswig 3 (5)
Dallas Center-Grimes 12, HCHS 2 (6)