DES MOINES — Taylor Kaufman kept his perfect record intact while moving No. 8 Glenwood to within a win of the Class 3-A championship game in its first state tournament appearance.

The junior left-hander improved to 11-0 on the season while striking out 10 batters in a four-hit effort in the Rams’ 11-2 quarterfinal win over Algona in front of 1,939 fans Tuesday at Principal Park. Two of the four hits by the Bulldogs against Kaufman didn’t leave the infield.

Glenwood will face unranked DeWitt Central (20-15) in the semifinal round at 2 p.m. Friday. The Sabers overcame five errors to top Carlisle 7-3 earlier Tuesday night.

Kaufman recorded his first eight outs in the late game on strikes before leadoff hitter Michael McMahon fouled out to the Glenwood pitcher to end the third. Travis Lenz reached on a bunt single to open the bottom of the fourth to break up the no-hit bid. However, Kaufman picked him off first during the next at-bat and retired the next two batters.

Bryan Harless put Glenwood on top with a two-out, run-scoring double in the top of the third inning. The score remained 1-0 until Grant Stivers’ one-out double in the fifth started a string of five consecutive hits by the Rams.

Kaufman ended that streak with a two-run single to right that put Glenwood up 4-0 and chased Algona starter Brady Collison (7-3) after only 413 innings. An ensuing sacrifice fly by Nick Wells gave the Rams five earned runs against the Bulldog ace, who had allowed only 10 earned runs all season while posting an ERA of 0.93 before Tuesday.

Algona broke through for a run in the bottom of the fifth, collecting three straight singles off Kaufman to open the inning. But the Rams’ lefty fanned Collison and got McMahon to fly out with two on to keep the Glenwood lead at four.

The Rams tacked on two runs on wild pitches in the sixth. Grant Loeffelbein had a two-run triple off the top of the wall in left-center and scored on a wild pitch himself to make it 10-1. Kyle Wheeler added a run-scoring single in the seventh to cap the scoring and complete his 4-for-5 night.

Harless finished with three hits and Loeffelbein had two for Glenwood, making the top three hitters in the Rams’ lineup a combined 9 for 14 in the victory.

Glenwood (28-7)..................001 045 1—11 15 0
Algona (19-16)..................000 010 1—2 5 0
W: Taylor Kaufman (11-0) L: Brady Collinson (7-3) 2B: G, Bryan Harless, Grant Stivers, Matt Schulz, Kyle Wheeler, Nathanael Bledsoe; A, Derrik Johnson. 3B: G, Grant Loeffelbein.

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