No repeat for Rams

    Nearly a year ago to the day, it was the Glenwood baseball team tossing its gloves in the air and dog piling on the pitcher's mound at Harlan's Jim Goeser field as the Rams advanced in the Class 3A post-season with a win over the Cyclones.

    On Wednesday, roles were reversed as Harlan avenged pair of early losses and that season-ender last year to Glenwood with a 7-1 upset victory  in the Class 3A, Sub-District 8 final to advance to this week's state tournament and end the Rams' shot at repeat state title.
    “We had a pretty good year overall  but all these kids, this is all they're going to remember,” said Glenwood Coach Brett Elam. “Tonight, this wasn't the team that took the field all year. We can take getting beat by a better team, but honestly, I hate to say this, but they're not a better team than us. They found a way to get the job done tonight and they made plays.”
    Glenwood finishes its season with a record of 29-8.
    Harlan (19-18) wasted no time getting to Ram starter Taylor Kaufman to opening the top of the first inning. Kaufman, who tossed a perfect game against the Cyclones on June 23 in a 6-0 win, gave up three hits to open the game, including a two-run double by Alex Brown. The Cyclones were aided by a pair of Ram errors in the opening frame and led 4-0 heading into the bottom of the first.
    Glenwood answered with a run in the bottom of the first when Brown, the Cyclones' starting pitcher, hit the first two batters of the game. Lead-off man Kyle Wheeler came on to score on a throwing error later in the inning, but the run would be the Rams' lone tally.
    Harlan would add a run in the third, fourth and sixth,
    Elam thought his team, down 4-0 after the top half of the inning, pressed a little too much at the plate and it never allowed them to relax and just swing the bat.
    “Without  doubt we pressed,” Elam said. “The last two, two and a half weeks of the season we haven't been hitting and we don't know why. Our hands look slow, we're looking at fast balls down the middle and watching perfect pitches. We've had guys go up, have six perfect pitches and next thing they know they're looking at called strike three and they haven't swung at a ball.
    “I preach and preach to them, if you can't hit .400 on the curve ball, don't miss the fast ball. We're going up there and we're looking at fast balls. I don't know what we're looking at. You can wait for the perfect pitch but you're not going to always get the perfect pitch.”
    Kaufman, so strong for the Rams' all season before dropping three of his final four starts to close out the season, was touched up for eight hits and walked a season-high three. The senior left hander struck out 14 but it was when the Cyclones made contact that was the problem. Four of Harlan's seven runs came via six Glenwood errors.
    “I hate to beat a dead horse but I've told the guy we've been soft all year and that couldn't have been more evident than tonight,” said Elam. “We go out there and everybody on the infield kicks the ball around. We weren't the aggressors. To make plays you have to want the ball hit to you and we had guys who didn't want the ball hit to them and it showed. They got the lead the first inning and never let us back in it.”
    Elam felt his team relied too much on Kaufman on Wednesday and this season and not enough on making the routine plays.
    “We were in the Suburbans on the way here tonight and I can guarantee you there were 17 of the 18 guys who said 'Taylor's on the mound, he had a perfect game against them last time, we're going to state,'' said Elam. “I heard in my Suburban, 'What time are we going to play at state, coach?' I looked at them and said 'We have to win tonight. We can't look past tonight.'”
    Glenwood finished with a season-low three hits: two singles and a two-out, seventh inning triple by Wheeler. The Rams' top six hitters were a combined 2-for-15.
    “We didn't put a lot of good swings on the ball, thank god Kyle (Wheeler) hit a ball hard with two outs, down to our last strike. It was the only ball we hit hard all night. We hit a lot of ground balls and we weren't aggressive at the plate,” Elam said.
    Brown didn't overpower the Rams and struggled with his control at times – three walks, three hit batters – but he kept them just enough off balance to control the strike zone.
    “Maybe he was just wildly effective enough to keep us off balance so we couldn't sit on anything and when we did get something, we couldn't do anything with it. We couldn't get ground balls off the infield grass. When you can't hit a ball hard, it's not tough to make those plays,” said Elam.
    Elam talked with his team for more than 20 minutes after the game in right field. Most of the talk, the coach said, was about his six seniors and the contributions they've made to the program.
    “This was a great group of seniors,” Elam said. “I wish them all the best, a couple them are going to go play baseball (in college) and those kids that aren't going to continue playing I feel sorry for them because this may be the last taste of baseball they ever have the rest of their lives.”
    Elam will be charged with re-building the Rams next season with the loss of six senior starters, including his top two pitches and four of his top six hitters.
    “It'll be tough,” he said. “Those six seniors started most of the year...it's going to be tough to replace them. We have just two junior coming back but we have a pretty good group of freshmen and sophomores. It'll be easy to see (next) year who worked hard over the winter and who wants to be in the lineup next season.”

Glenwood 12,
Winterset 1
    Kyle Wheeler and Alec Forbes drove in two runs each for Glenwood in a 12-1, five innings victory over Winterset in the Class 1A, District 8 final last Monday.
    The Rams (29-7) out-scored their two district opponents 23-1 to advance to Wednesday's sub state final against Harlan (18-14).
    On Monday, Glenwood had six batters record at least one hit with Forbes leading the way with two hits, including a double, two RBIs and two stolen bases.
    Matt Schulz earned the win on the hill, scattering two hits over four innings while striking out seven. Forbes came on to pitch a hitless fifth.