Monday night was the home and conference opener for the Mid-Prairie baseball and softball teams as they welcomed the West Branch Bears to Kalona and Wellman. In a game that you heard on AM and FM KCII, the Golden Hawk girls started the new era of returning head coach Amy Hartsock-Williams in style, shellacking the Bears 9-0. The Hawks scored an unearned run in the second when Hannah Sellers singled and came home on an error. In the third it was three more with Dakota Mitchell, Brittany Kinsinger and Landry Pacha coming around on an error, an RBI ground out and a pair of wild pitches. Four more scored in the fifth when Mid-Prairie batted all the way around, to make it 8-0 with Gabi Robertson, Kinsinger, Sellers and Madeline Schrader all crossing home plate. Sellers and Schrader provided the RBI hits. In the seventh, Pacha drove in Robertson to finish the scoring. All of the offense was more than enough for Mid-Prairie starter Sydney Knebel who controlled the circle in twirling the three hit complete game shut out of West Branch. She struck out five batters and at one point sat down 10 straight in recording her first career win. The battery-mates Knebel and Sellers talked after the game about the night. Knebel said, “Hannah set up perfectly behind the plate so I knew right where to throw it. Depending on where they were set up we worked inside and outside on the plate. That seemed to work really well.”

Sellers stated, “Our defense played really well tonight. The best we have played in a long time. In my at-bats, Coach Zeb just told me to have a ‘hit thought’, stay relaxed and just drive it, and I did that!”

Mid-Prairie finished with nine hits for their nine runs with the Golden Hawk catcher Sellers leading the way with three RBI. Robertson had three hits and a pair of runs scored. Schrader and Pacha each had a hit, run and RBI. With the win, the Hawks are 1-0 and host Keokuk Tuesday.

The No. 3 ranked Mid-Prairie baseball team was upset in their home opener Monday, falling to the unranked West Branch Bears 1-0 at Paul N. Bailey Field. The pitchers dual was scoreless until the seventh when the Bears scratched across a single tally in the top half with a Max Lodge sac fly driving in Connor Rios for the games only run. Mid-Prairie was held to four singles in the game, one each for Brock Harland, Karson Grout, Will Cavanagh and Dylan Henry. Ian Nelson got the win in relief for the Bears as he and ace Lucas Pierece combined for the four hit shut out, striking out six. Brady Weber started for Mid-Prairie on the mound, scattering three hits through five innings of shut out ball. Bowen Burmeister took the tough luck loss in relief, allowing just the one run on one hit while walking three. Mid-Prairie is now 1-1 on the year and will try to rebound tonight at Fairfield.