In a five hour softball saga Tuesday night Mid-Prairie opened up conference play with a double header sweep of West Branch in Kalona. Game one saw the Bears jump out to an early 4-0 lead on two runs in the first and two more in the fourth against Golden Hawk starter Taylor Kurtz. Mid-Prairie would find themselves down 5-1 in the fifth inning before the offense would come alive. The Golden Hawks took their first lead of the game in the fifth with a half dozen runs, keyed by RBI hits from Ashley Sojka and Taylor Kurtz. The Hawks could not hold the 7-5 lead as the Bears chased Golden Hawk starter Kurtz in the top of the sixth and retook the lead 10-7.

Mid-Prairie would come back once more with an epic hour and fifteen minute, 15 batter sixth inning that saw six walks, six hits and 11 total Golden Hawk runs. Emma Troyer finished the game in the circle for the Hawks to secure the 18-10 win, tossing one and two thirds innings, allowing just one hit and striking out three. Following the game Mid-Prairie Head Coach Kara Beatty talked about her teams offensive approach in the second half of the game

“I think that everyone settled in, established their approach at the plate, weren’t swinging at ball out of the zone, knowing if they were ahead in the count, what they were looking for and just overall being patient. We were just communicating, runners on we were communicating where the pitches were, seeing the change up a lot better, and like I told them, once we get that first hit out of the way, hitting is really contagious and we all kind of stepped up 1-9 and everyone put the ball in play at that point,” Beatty said.

Game two lacked drama as the Golden Hawks buried the Bears 12-0 in just three innings. After a scoreless top of the first Mid-Prairie jumped all over West Branch with five runs in the first on five hits. That was all Golden Hawk starter Emma Troyer would need as she recorded her second win of the night in game two. Mid-Prairie would add a single tally in the second and a half dozen more in the third when they sent 11 players to the plate, it was the third inning of the night where Mid-Prairie batted all the way through the order in one frame.

Offensive leaders on the night for Mid-Prairie included Amber Kral who hit for the cycle combined between the two games going five for five with five RBI and six runs scored. Ashley Sojka was five for six with three RBI and five runs scored. 11 different Golden Hawks scored in the doubleheader. Mid-Prairie cracked 19 total hits on the night en route to their 30 combined runs and drew 16 walks between the two games. Mid-Prairie is now 2-0 on the year and travels to Clear Creek Amana Thursday.