WAVERLY - NU High senior pitcher Brad Denning has rhythm.

For a little while Saturday night, however, he suffered from a case of the blues during his team's quest to reach the Class 1A state baseball tournament.

Denning was called several times in the middle innings for balks, but shook off the trouble and escorted the Little Panthers to a 3-2 victory over Janesville in a district final at Hertel Field on the Wartburg College campus.

"I have been pitching for a very long time and never been called for a balk," Denning stated. "I wasn't quite understanding the umpire's ruling, and it really threw me out of rhythm.

"I felt I was in a good flow during the game, but those calls bothered me a bit and I just had to get myself back on track," Denning said.

The first balk call came in the fourth inning and allowed Blair Mattingly to advance to second base. He later scored on an error to tie the game at 2-2.

"That was interesting. Brad has never been called for a balk," Panthers coach Brent Denning said. "I thought Brad did a great job of getting his composure back and mentally became stronger and battled through it.

"The game itself was a dogfight, and we knew coming in it was going to be quite a battle," Denning added. "You have two very good pitchers throwing with (Bo) Murley on the other side, and you get a game like the one you saw tonight. That Murley is a heck of an athlete, and he threw very hard against us."

Murley allowed one earned run and struck out five Panthers, but five errors on the Wildcat defense contributed to the season-ending defeat.

"I think our guys gave one heck of an effort tonight, but we just came up a little short," Wildcats coach Scott Murley said. "Brad Denning struggled early for them, but in the end he was the pitcher we expected, and we didn't get the hits we needed."

Denning shut down the Wildcats' offense, recording eight strikeouts and getting eight fly outs.

The Panthers had difficulty solving Murley in the early stages until senior Tanner Cooke locked in and drilled an RBI single through the infield to spark a two-run fourth inning.

"We knew these guys would be tough, and we knew we would be facing their ace (Murley)," Cooke said. "He was getting his curveball across on us early, and we had trouble picking it up. I was able to see it better my second time up and was able to get the hit."

Cooke, with a pair of singles, was the only player with multiple hits in the game.

Denning recorded five of his eight strikeouts in the final three innings, including the final out of the game.

"When that last out was made I felt like the monkey was taken off my back," Denning said, referring to his early balk troubles.

"We had some very nice plays made by our defense, especially Calvin's (Siebel) line drive catch at second and Johnny Hines making that nice grab in left at the end.

"This team comes out to play every game, and we can go as far as we want at state," Denning said.

"We are in a rhythm now and we just need to play great ball the way we are capable of and we can go a long way."

NU High 000 210 0 - 3 8 1

Janesville 001 100 0 - 2 3 5

B.Denning and Quinones; Murley and Bolt.

2B - NU, Quinones. Multiple hits - NU, Cooke.

Rebels cash in on Sailors' mistakes

JESUP - Gladbrook-Reinbeck jumped on Waterloo Columbus for three unearned runs in the sixth inning to end the Sailors' baseball season with a 5-2 Class 2A district final win Saturday.

A sacrifice bunt by Andrew Thede resulted in two Sailor throwing errors, allowing pinch-runner Clint Dinsdale to break a 2-2 tie with the go-ahead run.

"They knocked us out in the second round of districts last year, so our guys came in pretty hungry for a little revenge," said Rebel coach Caleb Hamer.

G-R pitcher Scott Benson recorded a complete game and went 3-for-4 with two doubles.

The Rebels (20-6) face Sumner-Fredericksburg in a substate game at Denver Tuesday.

The Sailors finished 24-19.

Columbus 011 000 0 - 2 7 5

Gladbrook-Reinbeck 101 003 x - 5 7 2

Drew Henninger, Skylar Kemp (6), Taylor Ingles (6) and Michael Goerdt; Scott Benson and Blaine Groth.

2B - Benson 2. Multiple hits - Col: Craig Konrardy 2; GR: Parker Boldt 2-3, Benson 3.