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It wasn’t a final inning rally but it was just as thrilling. The #4 ranked Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks came to life after falling behind #8 Clark of Osceola 5-0 to earn a berth at the state tournament with a 12-6 regional final win in Oskaloosa Monday night. This is the second come from behind victory in the regional finals in as many years for Mid-Prairie following last year’s final inning heroics at #1 Durant. Neither team could get anything going in their first at bat but the lady Indians broke through against Olivia Lugar and the Golden Hawks with five in the second capped with a three run homer from Danielle McIntosh. Mid-Prairie answered the bell right back in their next at bat sending 12 batters to the plate and scoring eight runs on seven hits to take a lead they would not relinquish. Coach Justin Lutjen talked in the post game show about how his team bounced back to take the lead.
“We had to get down 5-0, that is kind of the trend last year we got down 5-0 to Mediapolis, now Durant, had to make it exciting,” Lutjen said. “The girls responded, and all of the credit goes to them, They came back hard, and we weren’t going to let five runs get us down.”
“[Lugar] wants inning back than anybody I know, and she came back great after that second inning and was lights out. We just started driving the ball in to the gaps and getting base hits, it took us a couple of innings to get us going, but when we did we were on. I’m proud of these girls, it’s three in a row and for these Seniors it is four our of five years, and that is a tremendous accomplishment, so I’m so happy for them right now.”
The Mid-Prairie offense stayed hot in the following inning posting three more and finished their scoring with one in the sixth. Every batter for Mid-Prairie had at least one hit and scored at least one run in the win. Lugar was the winning pitcher for Mid-Prairie going seven innings giving up nine hits, six runs and striking out one batter. Lugar spoke after the game about the rough second inning and her teammates comeback the next time at the plate
“I was frustrated after they scored all of those runs, but I had no doubt that we could come back, and I was so excited and cheering really loud and I was so proud of everyone bouncing back how they did,” Lugar said.
With the win Mid-Prairie reached the state tournament for the third consecutive year and is 30-11 on the season. The Golden Hawks will be in the state quarterfinals Tuesday at 11:30 taking on the Bombers of Ballard of Huxley who stand at 32-9 on the year. Ballard was a 10-4 winner over MOC-Floyd Valley in the regional finals last night. KCII will have all of the action for you next week with pregame at 11 and first pitch at 11:30 from the Harlan Rogers Sports Complex in Ft. Dodge. KCII will have a full recap of the post game celebration complete with comments from coaches and players on the PM sports page Wednesday night at 6PM.