Semifinal setback

HARLAN — A five-run third inning broke open a 1-1 game as Harlan sailed to a 9-1 victory over Creston in the Class 3A Substate 8 semifinals Monday night.

In the rubber match of the three-game season series — Creston won 2-1 and lost 12-1 in a May 28 doubleheader with the Cyclones — Harlan took control with a five-run third against Creston pitchers Parker Varner and Cael Turner.

Turner was brought in from shortstop with two outs and a runner on second, with Harlan leading 3-1. The Cyclones stretched it to a 6-1 lead on a walk, hit batter with the bases loaded and two runs on wild pitches.

“You could tell PV was falling behind in counts and they had six hits at that point, so we wanted to go with Cael and try to shut them down,” Phipps said. “I put Cael in a tough spot there coming out of the field (without a warm-up). He settled down after that.”

While Creston was struggling to send baserunners home all night — nine left on base in the game — the Cyclone offense was ignited again in the fourth by leadoff batter Matthew Sorfonden, who scored three runs on the night. He reached base on an error and Quinn Koesters’ bunt single set up Colton Schneider and Brett Heese for RBI hits, followed by Jozef Reisz’s sacrifice fly to stretch the lead to the final 9-1 margin.

Quiet offense

Creston, which batted .308 for the season, was limited to six hits by Cyclone pitchers Caleb Schleis, Brock Lemerick and Koesters, who also combined for eight strikeouts. The Cyclones finished with nine hits, including a double by Schneider.

Creston coach Brandon Phipps said hopes to chip away at Harlan’s lead never materialized with the lack of timely hits with runners on base.

“They swung it well tonight,” Phipps said. “You have to tip your cap to the, they just outplayed us today in every aspect. They got momentum and we struggled in responding to it. We had some quick innings at the plate and didn’t swing it well tonight.”

Hitting one single each for Creston were Tom Mikkelsen, Gavin MIllslagle, Tanner Ray, Tyler Riley, Turner and Varner. Dylan Hoepker had the team’s only RBI on a groundout to second with Riley on third base in the third inning. The 1-1 deadlock was short-lived with Harlan’s five-run outburst in the bottom half of the inning.

Harlan (26-8) advances to Wednesday’s substate final against Lewis Central (22-12) or Bondurant-Farrar (23-8). Their game scheduled Monday in Bondurant was postponed to Tuesday night because of the storms that passed through the Des Moines metro area Monday evening.

Creston ended a 24-11 season, the most wins in the program since the 26-8 team in 2003 in Hall of Fame coach Vic Belger’s final season. The Panthers won 24 games in 2002.

This year’s squad also contended for the Hawkeye Ten title, ending up second at 15-5 behind league champion Clarinda, which met Underwood Tuesday night in Glenwood for a berth in the 2A state tournament.

Seven graduates

The seven seniors who ended their Panther careers Monday are Sam Henry, McCoy Haines, Milo Staver, Quinten Fuller, Millslagle, Hoepker and Turner. They led steady improvement in the program from an 8-21 campaign their freshman season to this year’s 24-11 mark. The Panthers won 14 games in each of coach Phipps’ first two seasons in 2022 and 2023.

“They are a special group,” Phipps said. “They worked so hard. They put in a lot of time and changed the way we went about things. They were sophomores when I came in and just developed and changed things for us. They committed to the everyday process of getting better.”