Photo Courtesy of the IAHSAA/IHSSN

The 2022 baseball season drew to a close for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks Thursday evening as they fell to No. 2 Estherville-Lincoln Central 7-4 in the semifinal round of the Class 2A State Tournament at Merchant’s Park in Carroll. Mid-Prairie’s postseason push has been personified by a fast offensive start, then relying on pitching and defense to put the game away. Thursday, the Golden Hawks leaned on that formula again, taking an early lead at 3-0 with a trio of runs in the second. Dylan Henry walked to start it, Collin Miller reached on an error, then Brock Harland walked to load the bags with no one out. Following a soft liner to third and a fielders choice, Mid-Prairie turned to Cain Brown with the bases loaded, but now two out, and he delivered a clutch base hit to right that got by the fielder and cleared the bags, leaving him at third, and giving the Hawks a 3-0 lead. While the math went Mid-Prairie’s way early, the equation didn’t account for ELC as the variable, the Midgets responded to the Hawks three runs with two of their own in the bottom half went Grant Love drove in Seth Busch and Kale Shatto on a single to make it 3-2 Hawks.

The Midgets got the biggest swing of the day in the third inning, literally and figuratively, taking the lead for good on a two run homer to right by third baseman Blake Ingvall to go up 4-3 and chase Golden Hawk starter Brady Weber. The score would stay that way until the fifth when ELC grabbed three big insurance runs on four hits against the Mid-Prairie pen to push the lead to 7-3. The Hawks didn’t go quietly in the seventh, putting the first two on base and scoring one when Karson Grout drove in Cavanagh with a ground ball. After the game, Mid-Prairie head coach Kyle Mullet talked about the gameplan, fast start and opponent. “We got out fast, we stressed that all year. The early lead was huge. We battled, I’m proud of our guys. They never gave up any at-bats and we’re playing a good Estherville team. They were on, they hit the ball well. We did what we needed to do. We put the ball in play, we just came up short, and that’s the game sometimes. Our pitchers did well, we made them earn it. They hit the ball, you can’t control that, and that’s the outcome. I know we lost that, we wanted to get to the championship, but for what this team did this year it was absolutely remarkable. For us to get here with the guys that we did says a lot. Our seniors Will Cavanagh and Tyler Helmuth had phenomenal careers. Didn’t give up and they just did a tremendous job in the way that they lead by example.”

The Golden Hawks were outhit in the game 11-7. Brown and Cavanagh each had two knocks. Brown and Grout had an RBI each. Ingvall, Love and Carter Snyder all had two driven in for ELC. Landon Vaske recorded the win for the Midgets, going six innings. Mid-Prairie sees their season close at 19-11, reaching the state semifinals for the fifth time in program history. They say goodbye to seniors Will Cavangh and Tyler Helmuth. Estherville-Lincoln Central improves to 33-2, winners of 24 straight and has a chance at the school’s first ever state title Friday when they battle three time defending state champion Van Meter in Carroll.