A familiar foe will be in the first base dugout at Paul N. Bailey Field Tuesday night in Wellman to oppose the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks. The Hawks open the class 2A district tournament with their rival, the Regina Regals. Mid-Prairie comes into the game with an overall record of 17-7. The Hawks were 14-4 in the River Valley Conference, champions of the South Division. Mid-Prairie enters the playoffs ranked No. 4 in class 2A in the final poll of the year from the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association. For the year the Hawks are hitting .351 as a team, best in Iowa in class 2A. They have a staff ERA of 3.84. Individually, Mid-Prairie is led by Aidan Rath and Karson Grout, both hitting over .400 at .500 and .447 respectively. Rath has a state leading 12 home runs with 39 total hits, 38 RBI and 34 runs scored. On the hill, the Hawks are led by Rath and Keegan Gingerich with matching 4-1 records. Rath has a 1.11 ERA in 25 innings, Gingerich is at 4.94 in 22 innings. Alex Bean is 3-0 with a 3.61 mark in 21 frames.

Iowa City Regina enters play at 14-14 on the year. The Regals were 10-8 in the River Valley South, finishing in fourth place. They were winners last night in the opening round of 2A play, beating West Burlington in Iowa City 6-2 behind a pair of RBI from Declan McCoy and six innings on the mound from Levi Quinlan who allowed seven hits, two runs and struck out three. On the year, Regina is hitting .248 as a team with a staff ERA of 3.75. Individually, they are led by Danny Gavin with a .384 average at the plate on 28 hits, 23 runs scored and 14 RBI. On the mound, Kyle Schooley is 3-2 with a 4.02 ERA in 31 innings this year. Adam Connell is 4-3 with a 3.41 mark and Quinlan 3-2 at 5.02. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Kyle Mullet talked about what he needs to see from his team. “We’re playing against the baseball itself, we’re almost playing against ourselves. The ball gets put in play and you make the routine plays and focusing on that. Focusing on ourselves is important and putting the pressure on the other team.”

These two teams met in a doubleheader a week ago with Mid-Prairie taking game one 12-1 in five innings and Regina winning a wild 13-12 game in the night cap. You can hear all of the action live tonight between the Hawks and the Regals on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Washington HyVee pregame show at 6:30 and first pitch at 7p.m. The Hawks and Regals are the second game of a doubleheader in Wellman tonight with the first featuring Mediapolis and Williamsburg.