The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk softball team clocked in for work on the Memorial Day Holiday at Tipton Monday, bringing home a pair of lopsided wins in a doubleheader sweep of the Tigers. Both contests lasted a combined seven innings with Mid-Prairie putting together the wins by a 40-4 total. Game one went the Golden Hawks way 17-0 in four innings. The Hawks scored in every frame with two runs in the first, one in the second, two more in the third, then exploded in the fourth with a 12 run, 10 hit, 17 batter inning to end proceedings early. In total, 12 different Hawks scored runs, all nine in the starting lineup had at least one hit and seven of the nine starters drove in at least one. Leaders included Kadence Grout with a three for three night with three RBI including a homer. Kyla Karnes knocked in three and Dakota Mitchell drove in two. Mitchell and Brenna Jehle also had two hits, Claire Trimpe, Jehle and Sophie Miller all scored three times. Grout got the win in the circle going four shut out innings, allowing three hits and striking out five.

If you were impressed by the Mid-Prairie bats in game one, you were blown away in game two, as the Hawks pounded the Tigers in the nightcap 23-4 in just three frames. A six-spot went on the board for Mid-Prairie in the first as 11 hitters went to the plate. The Tigers answered with four of their own in the bottom half and the crowd settled in for a shoot out. However, the fireworks the rest of the night were one sided. The top of the second, which lasted just over 45 minutes, saw the Golden Hawks parade 22 hitters to the plate and score 17 runs on just three hits as the Tigers self destructed with 10 walks and seven hit batters in the inning. When the dust cleared, Mid-Prairie’s lead was 23-4, and they would finish the win early by the same score. After the contest, Golden Hawk head coach Amy Hartsock-Williams talked about what she saw from her team in the sweep.

Hartsock-Williams said, “I really liked our enthusiasm and our effort. When you come in and you know the history of a team, you can sometimes come out flat. We came out attacking tonight. We showed patience at the plate. We made them bring the ball into the zone. Their pitchers had trouble with control so we had to be very disciplined. We didn’t chase. That’s how we racked up those runs. In the first game, Kadence (Grout) came out and worked her pitches well. She only had four innings in so we decided let’s go into the second game. When she came back out, she was a little cold early. After that first inning, we all kind of woke up. Like ‘Hey, we have to play!’. We turned it around after that. It’s really nice to see everyone contribute up and down the lineup. I didn’t feel like we had a weak spot one through nine. The bench was contributing also. The competition is going to get more difficult as the week progresses, so we have to take the mentality into games that we need to clean up on defense, keep working the full lineup and produce.”

All nine positions in the Mid-Prairie order scored a run, eight of the night starters drove in a run, and the Hawks lit up the scoreboard using just five hits. Gabi Robertson, Brylee Gearhart and Olivia Swartzentruber all had two RBI, Robertson had two hits. Sophie Miller scored four times, Dakota Mitchell, Brenna Jehle, Claire Trimpe, Robertson, and Karnes all touched home three times. The Golden Hawks were actually out hit seven to five, but feasted on 19 free base runners, 10 walks and nine hit batters. Grout got the win in game two in the circle, working three frames, giving up four runs on seven hits. Mid-Prairie is now 3-1 with a three game winning streak going into a Thursday contest at Wilton. Tipton falls to 1-3.