Schulz, Kaufman help deliver Hawk-10 sweep

    HARLAN - A pair of complete-game pitching gems by Matt Schulz and Taylor Kaufman carried the Glenwood baseball team to a pair of victories over Harlan last Thursday.
    Schulz (4-1) struck out 12 and allowed just four hits and no earned runs in an 8-3 Ram win in game one. All three Harlan runs came via Glenwood errors. In all, Glenwood committed five errors in the game.
    In game two, Taylor Kaufman tossed a perfect-game, retiring 21 straight and striking out 16.
    “Obviously Taylor throwing a perfect game and his third straight no-hitter was nails again. Matt dealt with five errors the first two innings and I guarantee it was hard for him to stay focused, but I tip my hat to him. He buckled down and did all he could to stay in the game and give us a chance.”
    Kaufman (4-0) has now thrown three straight no-hitters and fanned 56 in 26 innings of work this season. He has also not allowed an earned run.
    “His fast ball was working, he’s throwing his change up real well and his curve ball was unhittable again,” said Elam. “It’s hard to see how he could get much better having thrown three no-hitters in a row, but I don’t see any let up either.”
    The Ram offense belted 23 hits in the two games.
    Nathaniel Bledsoe had four hits and drove in five runs in the twin bill.
    Heath Loeffelbein had three hits and drove in two runs.
    As happy as Elam was with his offense, he was more happy with the fact his team allowed just four hits in the two games combined.
    “Harlan is a team that typically, no matter who is on the mound, comes to swing the bat,” said Elam. “When you can take the bat out of their hands, that’s big.”

Rams streaks ends at eight
    Glenwood baseball coach Bret Elam must have felt like he was having dejavu all over again.
    Nearly a year to the day after Glenwood stumbled in a lackluster 10-0 loss to Sioux City East a night after a key Hawkeye 10 Conference double-header sweep of Harlan, the Rams seemingly did the same thing on Friday.
    Glenwood dominated Harlan in a pair of conference wins on Thursday before dropping a 10-0, five inning decision to the Black Raiders in what Elam called his team’s flattest performance of the year.
    “There’s not a whole to say,” said Elam. “I told the kids after the game the only good thing I could come up with after this games was I hope, for our sakes, that history repeats itself. Last year, we swept Harlan, get busy patting ourselves on the back and come out flat and Sioux City East beat us 10-0 and last we went on to win a state tournament. Hopefully history can repeat itself.”
    The Rams’ Alec Forbes (3-2), who left the game after an inning with arm soreness, recorded the loss.
    Ben Schwaderer held the Glenwood offense to just two, but the junior right hander didn’t blow anybody away, said Elam.
    “We came up there flat, swinging at pitches above the belt and I think three of the five innings we went one-two-three with lazy fly balls,” said Elam.
    Glenwood (18-4 overall, 11-0 in the Hawkeye 10 Conference) has a tough week ahead with a pair of big conference double-headers looming on Thursday against Denison and on Saturday against Kuemper Catholic. The Rams’ have a one game lead on Kuemper in the conference standings. This will be a challenging week for his team, Elam said.
    “18-4 is a good record but we feel we probably should have won a couple of those so looking at it, if we can win these next seven in six days, 25-4 is huge for us,” said Elam.

Glenwood 18,
Red Oak 1
    The Glenwood baseball team smacked 20 hits in an 18-1 Hawkeye 10 Conference victory over Red Oak last Tuesday.
    The Rams, who defeated the Tigers 17-1 earlier this season, started fast and didn’t let up.
    “We knew the rain was coming and we wanted to get this game in,” said Elam. “We didn’t want the chance we’d have to replay it, be tired or get down to somebody. So we came out swinging the bat and we swung it pretty well.”
    Kyle Wheeler and Matt Schulz had three hits each and Tyler Jensen, Alec Forbes, Nathaniel  Bledsoe and Taylor Kaufman each added two hits. Bledsoe drove in four runs and Schulz two.
    Corey Bertini (3-0) threw four innings, allowed four hits, one earned run and struck out seven in the win.

Glenwood 14,
Creston 3
    Taylor Kaufman belted his sixth home run of the season and drove in four runs for Glenwood in a 14-3 victory over Creston last Monday.
    Grant Stivers (2-0) recorded the win, allowing eight hits and two earned runs over four innings.
    “We want to kind of put Grant to the test,” said Elam of his junior right-hander. “Not that Creston’s a slouch but we’re trying to throw Grant against better and better competition so we can use him down the stretch. We’ve got a tough week coming up and we want to see him compete. We’re going to need him. He threw real well.”