Photo Courtesy of Doug Brenneman

The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team scored a key victory Thursday at Paul N. Bailey Field in Wellman, shutting out rival Iowa City Regina 7-0. From the onset, Golden Hawk senior starter Alex Bean was sensational. He sat down the first seven he faced in order, and had a no-hitter going into the seventh inning before a Jack Clark single with nobody out, the only Regal hit of the night, broke up the bid. He was dominant in allowing just four walks and striking out nine. Bean, the Golden Hawk of the Game, joined the KCII postgame show live to talk about his outing.

Bean said, “I had an idea that I had one (a no-hit bid) about the fourth or fifth inning, but, I was just out there cruising, having fun, letting my defense do the work, throwing strikes, and it worked out for us. Fastball was working well. The curveball early on in the game, struck out a couple kids on that. Toward the end of the game I was attacking hitters and getting ground balls. That what allowed me to go deep into this game. We just came out here and did it, got the job done.”

The Hawks also did work at the plate, pounding out seven runs on five hits and capitalizing on three Regal errors. Mid-Prairie scored four times in the fourth with Dylan Henry, Kaden Kos, Brady Weber and Landry Gingerich all reaching home on singles from Henry and Karson Grout and RBI for Grout and Gingerich. In the fourth, Mid-Prairie added to their lead when Camron Pickard reached on an error and Cain Brown doubled him home. Two more went on the board in the sixth when Pickard tripled with one out, Grout doubled him in, and Bean’s RBI ground out brought home Brown. After the game, Golden Hawk Karson Grout, joined the KCII postgame show to talk about the approach he and his team have at the plate. Grout said, “I’m just taking the ball where the pitcher throws it. I’m getting a lot of pitches outside. People don’t want to come inside, so I’m just working the other way, taking what they give me. We just stress putting the ball in play with two strikes. Make the other team make a play. Like tonight, (Regina) made a few errors and it really helped us.”

Grout was the only Hawk to record multiple hits. He, Brown, Bean and Gingerch all had one RBI. Pickard scored twice and Brown, Henry, Kos, Weber and Gingerich each crossed home plate once. The win moves Mid-Prairie to 14-6 on the year and keeps them atop the River Valley Conference at 10-1 with a weekend trip to Treynor ahead.