Kaufman’s moon shot sends Cyclones to second round

In the bottom of the third inning of the Class 3A – 8 First Round Tournament Game with the HCHS Cyclones baseball team leading 3-2 over the Carroll Tigers, Junior Cyclone Landen Kaufman stepped to the plate and connected on a 3-2 pitch for a 3-run home run that cleared the left field fence putting his team up 6-2, en route to a 11-3 win, punching their ticket to the Semifinals of Regional Play.

“It was great,” Kaufman said. “I was hoping the ball would go the moment I hit it, and it went, and I was just super excited.”

Senior Cyclone Braydon Ernst took the mound and opened the game with a strikeout of Sophomore Tiger Jackson Gross. Senior Chase Ragaller popped up to Ernst just behind the mound to end the inning as the Tigers were unable to cash in at the plate.

It didn’t take long for the Cyclone offense to get on the scoreboard with Freshman Colton Schneider sending an RBI single down the right field line scoring Senior Matthew Sorfonden after Sorfonden opened the inning with a walk. Junior Brett Heese knocked in the second run of the game scoring Senior Quinn Koesters on a fielders choice taking a 2-0 lead into the second inning.

In the top of the third, the Tiger offense made some noise starting with three consecutive base hit by Gross, Tate Schleisman, and Ryan North, which allowed Gross to score cutting the Cyclone lead to 2-1. Later on in the inning, Ragaller hit an RBI groundout to Cyclone Junior Weston Reisz at third base tying the game at 2.

The Cyclone offense immediately responded back in the bottom half of the inning with a RBI single by Junior Jozef Reisz and then a 3-run home run by Kaufman putting them up 6-2.

“That was a huge swing out of Landen,” said Cyclone Head Coach Heath Stein. “We were sitting there and it was 3-2 at the time when he hit it, and it’s intense, and the natural adrenaline is going to be higher in the postseason, and he stepped up and did an awesome job.”

Following the Cyclones big inning, Ernst was able to return to the mound in the top of the fourth, and have a strong 1-2-3 inning getting his team right back in the dugout.

“He worked through some things and he never gave them anything free,” Stein said of Ernst. “I think he walked just two, so good job batting through by Ernst.”

When the Cyclones came to bat in the bottom of the fourth, their offense came alive again starting with an RBI single from Schneider, then a sacrifice fly from Junior Hayden Soma, but the biggest swing of the inning came from Weston Reisz when he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and hit a 3-run double into the right center field gap busting the game wide open, putting his team up 11-2.

“My first at bats weren’t the greatest, and I was just looking for a fastball, something I could drive in the gap with two outs, and not try to do too much, and it got through,” Reisz said.

Ernst continued to shut down the Tigers offense pitching a scoreless top of the fifth and top of the sixth. The Tigers were able to add one more run in the top of the seventh when Gross came up to bat, reached base via error scoring Landon Petersen after Petersen hit a leadoff double to open the inning, but the Cyclones hung on for the 11-3 win stamping their ticket to the second round of Regional Play.

“I looking forward to being here with the guys every single day and it’s pretty awesome,” Reisz added. “Hopefully we can keep things rolling.”

The Cyclones will host the Creston Panthers in Monday’s second round game at 7 p.m. as they beat the Denison Monarchs 10-4 in their first round victory. Offensively, the Panthers are led by Dylan Hoepker with 45 hits and 30 runs batted in, batting .378. On the mound, Parker Varner has nine wins, with 74 strikeouts and a 1.37 earned run average in 66.1 innings pitched.

“We’ve got to get the bats rolling early and play great defense,” Kaufman said. “Have great momentum throughout the game and keep it up.”