A key River Valley Conference South Division baseball clash went against the No. 3 ranked Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks Wednesday when they fell at Durant 5-4. The Hawks couldn’t ask for a better start, sending seven men to the plate in their first at bat and plating four runs as Cain Brown, Landry Gingerich, Karson Grout and Collin Miller all raced around the bases with Miller and Dylan Henry supplying RBI contact. Durant counter punched in their first at bat, scoring twice on two hits to make it 4-2 after one and then taking the lead with three more in the second at 5-4. Despite all of the early game fireworks, that’s where the score would stand the rest of the night as Mid-Prairie’s Grout and Brown would settle in on the mound to work all six innings and Ethan Gast for Durant would score the complete game victory. Down just one run going to the seventh, the Hawks made a late push, loading the bases with one out, but Gast recorded the second out and the Wildcats went to Ben Orr out of the pen to record the one out save and strand the maximum. After the game, Golden Hawk head coach Kyle Mullet talked about what he saw. “We came out right in the first inning and got ahead. Always want to do that. The guys had a good approach at the plate. They put the ball in play, strung hits together and had timely hits. We moved guys over and we scored them. Cain (Brown) came on in relief and did awesome. I mean, that’s exactly what you want from your guys. Scoreless innings. Come in and throw strikes and get strike outs when needed. When he’s at the plate, we like to think any time he puts the ball in play he has a chance to be on safe at first with his speed. He’s exactly what you want in a lead-off hitter. Can get on base and key rallies.”

Brown had a huge night for the Hawks going four of four at the plate, stealing two bases and scoring a run, while throwing three scoreless innings on the bump. With the loss, the Golden Hawks fall to 4-2 and will host Northeast Goose Lake Thursday.