At the Boy’s State Baseball Tournament Tuesday, in Des Moines, Western Dubuque teed off on Harlan pitching in Class 3-A, to move on to the next round with a 12-1 victory in five innings. Nick Tuttle tossed 2.2 innings of one-run ball to pick up the win and went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI at the plate. Harlan was held to just two hits on the day, while the Bobcats knocked 14. Ben Bruck started for the Cyclones, but did not escape the first inning and suffered the loss. Ben Bruck led off the game with a walk and then advanced to second on a stolen base before taking third on a throwing error by the catcher.

Jake Paeges took the second walk of the inning to put runners on the corners with one down. Ludwig erased Paeges with a perfect throw to gun him down on a stolen base attempt. Zach Osborn followed with his 26th RBI of the season to plate the Cyclones’ first run. Western Dubuque took no time to battle back, scoring seven runs on eight singles in the first and sending 12 batters to the plate. Nick Tuttle helped his own cause in the bottom of the inning, ripping a one out single to left and moving to third on a Ryan Lehmann single to center.

Tyson Massey reached base on a fielder’s choice, but Ben Bruck’s throw sailed into right, allowing Tuttle to score and keeping runners at the corners. Massey swiped second and then Hunter Westhoff broke the tie with a two-run single to left. Cody Kramer looped and RBI single to right to score the Bobcats’ fourth run of the inning and chase Josh Bruck out of the game. With two down and runners on the corners, Zach Osborn took the hill and allowed Adam Hoeger to score on Brendan McCoy’s infield single. Logan Pitz and Nick Tuttle followed with back-to-back singles in their second at-bats in the inning to plate two more runs.

The Bobcats added two more in the second on three straight singles by Massey, Westhoff, and Cody Reimer to start the frame. Massey then knocked the Bobcats first extra base hit with a gapper in the third to score Lehmann from first to extend their lead to 10-1. Hoeger took a one out walk in the fourth and swiped second, then scored on a throwing error by Bruck at short. Logan Pitz plated Cody Kramer to give Western Dubuque a 12-1 advantage. The Western Dubuque Bobcats will face off against the DCG Mustangs in the next round. First pitch for the semi-finals is set for noon on Friday at Principal Park.