Cyclones baseball closes out season with 24 wins
In a game that didn’t feature much offense, HCHS Cyclone pitching paved the way starting with Junior Cyclone Weston Reisz who went five innings, giving up just one hit, and striking out six batters, helping lead his team to a 3-0 victory over Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln, closing out their regular season with 24 wins.
“That was the best outing he’s had all year,” said Cyclone Head Coach Heath Stein of Reisz. “It was dominant, six strikeouts, threw only 57 pitches, and that worked. We had a couple of errors in the first inning, but he did a nice job of pitching around those.”
The first inning was quiet, but the Cyclone offense scored a run in the bottom of the second and third, as well as the sixth inning with Quinn Koesters, Jozef Reisz, and Foxx Argotsinger contributing with runs batted in.
Following Reisz’ outing, Koesters took over out of the bullpen pitching a scoreless top of the sixth allowing two baserunners via a hit and hitting a batter, but he struck out one. Freshman Colton Schneider pitched the final inning striking out two, giving up a walk and a hit batter.
“That was the plan,” Stein said. “Colton hasn’t been on the mound in a while, so he threw out of the bullpen and needed to be on the mound for an inning and face hitters. Same with Quinn. They’ve been our backend guys all year and they’ll be there to continue to roll in the postseason. Great job from our pitching staff.”
With this win, the Cyclones conclude their regular season with an overall record of 24-8, including winning their final two games and three out of their last four.
Offensively, Koesters has the most hits with 35, batting .357, while Junior Hayden Soma knocked in 31 runs. On the mound, Braydon Ernst has six wins with 41 strikeouts in 49 innings pitched and a 2.00 earned run average. Schneider had the lowest earned run average coming out of the bullpen with 0.79.
“We went through some ups and downs,” Stein said. “It was a roller coaster at times. The strength of our team has been our pitching staff. It’s been very, very good all year long, and the hitting is very hard. It comes and goes once in a while. We’ve worked through a lot of things and made improvements throughout the year and we have everyone in a good mindset going into the postseason to be able to execute.”
The Cyclones will open Regional Play Friday at home at 7 p.m. in the Class 3A – 8 First Round Tournament Game against the 8-18 Carroll Tigers. Offensively, the Tigers are led by Ryan North batting .359 with 28 hits and Jackson Gross with 14 runs batted in. On the mound, Stone Sibenaller has four wins with 51 strikeouts in 51 innings pitched with a 2.33 earned run average.
“They play in a tough league, so I don’t think their record dictates the quality of team they are,” Stein added. “You can’t take anybody lightly in the postseason. It’s a one game season, one game at a time. They’ve got Sibenaller, who is their ace on the mound I believe. I’d imagine we’ll see him. I don’t believe we’ve seen him in the past.”