It’s lights, camera, action Monday night for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team when they take their home diamond for the 2023 season opener against Class 4A Davenport West. The Hawks are coming off of a successful 2022 that saw them end the season in the Class 2A State semifinals a year ago, before falling to runner-up Estherville-Lincoln Central 7-4 at Merchant’s Park in Carroll. Mid-Prairie’s sixth trip to state in school history came on the heels of a 19-11 regular season, with a 9-8 mark in the River Valley Conference. The Golden Hawks hit .291 as a team last year with a .366 slug percentage and .420 OBP. On the mound they had a team ERA of 3.65 with a 1.60WHIP and opponents hit .239 against them. Mid-Prairie lost seniors Will Cavanagh and Tyler Helmuth to graduation, but do return five players who hit over .300, led by Cain Brown’s .382 and Karson Grout’s 28 RBI. Mid-Prairie also returns their wins and strikeouts leader on the mound, Collin Miller, after a 5-2 season last year, 72 punchouts and a 3.02 ERA. Mid-Prairie is ranked in both preseason Class 2A polls, standing at No. 5 in the varsity bound ratings, and No. 2 according to the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association.

Davenport West was 12-26 last year, 5-13 in the MAC Conference. They hit .276 as a team with .402OBP and .330 slug percentage. While the offense was good for the Falcons, they struggled on the hill with a 5.31 team ERA, 1.75WHIP and .222 opponent batting average against. Their top 10 hitters by the numbers all return, including six guys that ended over .300, led by William Evans .429 and Brady Hansen’s 40 total hits. Wins leader Ashton Hazelett is back on the mound this year after a 4-5 season with a 4.99 ERA and a Falcon-best 37 strikeouts in 2022. Idris Thomas finished with a 2.62 ERA to lead the team. This week, Golden Hawk head coach Kyle Mullet joined KCII sports to talk about what has him most excited about this year’s team. Mullet said, “It’s probably our experience. A lot of these guys have been on varsity for three for years, and playing. Especially this senior class and some of the juniors. These guys have been with us. The infield is all returners from last year. We pretty excited that those guys can return and have a solid year. Our goal is to go to state and win a state championship. That’s very hard to do. You can have all the great players you want but, you have to go out and things have to happen for you. You have to be playing the right type of baseball at the right time. Playing well. Hopefully our guys can come out, pursue that, and make it happen!”

West has won both all-time meetings between the two schools, the most recent in 2018 a 14-1 victory. Along with opening a new season, Mid-Prairie will be showing off newly renovated Paul N. Bailey Field. The Golden Hawk’s home underwent a near half-million dollar facelift in the off-season that included new seating areas, a new pressbox, clubhouse, drainage work, concrete work, signage, masonry and more. You can hear all of the action live tonight on FM 106.1 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Jessica Yoder and Sarah Bigley with Lepic Kroeger Realtors Pregame Show at 6:30 and first pitch between the Falcons and Hawks at 7p.m.