The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball and softball teams return home Friday to finish out the week hosting the Wilton Beavers. The Golden Hawk baseball team is 8-3 overall and winners of six of their last seven games after a 9-1 victory Thursday at West Branch. The Hawks are ranked No. 8 in class 2A in the latest poll from the Iowa Baseball Coaches Association. Mid-Prairie is hitting .321 as a team for the season, the 10th best club mark in all of 2A. They are led by Aidan Rath, this week’s KCII JET Physical Therapy Athlete of the Week with his .593 average, third best in Iowa and team best 17 RBI. The Mid-Prairie staff has an ERA of 2.92 led by Brad Tornow at 0.60 with a 4-0 overall record and 35 strikeouts in 17 innings. With a top 10 offense by the numbers, and a team average 70 points higher than last year, Golden Hawk head coach Andy Greiner talked this week about what has spurred the Mid-Prairie attack at the plate. “We have a few young guys who have been in our daily varsity rotation that really compliment our veteran core. Guys like Karson Grout and Will Cavanagh have great attitudes, put together good at bats, make solid contact and don’t strike out much. They do their jobs at a high level and it lifts the offense.”
Wilton enters the game with a mark of 4-4. The Beavers last recorded action was a 6-1 loss to Durant on Tuesday. For the season the Beavers are hitting .235 as a team, led by Chase Garvin at .348 for the year. They have a 1.61 team ERA to lead the River Valley, paced by Nolan Townsend with an 0-2 record and no earned runs allowed in eight and two thirds innings. These two teams played a doubleheader last year, splitting the games with a 12-1 Wilton win and a 4-3 Golden Hawk win in 2019. Wilton has won 12 of the last 14 in the series.
The Golden Hawk softball team is 0-6 entering tonight through their most recent recorded action. They fell at West Liberty Monday 10-0 in six innings. On the year the Hawks are hitting .146 as a team led by Rylee Vercande at .350 with seven hits, four runs scored, a homer and an RBI. In the circle the Hawks have a team ERA of 6.89 led by Myah Lugar with a 5.02 through 15 and a third innings with an 0-3 overall record.
Wilton is 7-2 on the year. They were last in action Monday, falling to Durant 7-0. For the season the Beavers are hitting .391 as a team, led by Payton Ganzer at .438 with 14 hits and 14RBI. In the circle Wilton has a team ERA of 2.09 led by Grace Madlock at 1.94 through 21 and two thirds innings with 1-0 overall record. These two teams met in a single game last year with Mid-Prairie scoring a 7-5 win. Softball action starts at 7p.m. at Carr, Vincent Gould Field in Kalona. Baseball will begin at 7p.m. at Paul N. Bailey Field in Wellman and you can hear it live on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Washington HyVee pregame show at 6:30.