Photo Courtesy of Prep Baseball Report
The No. 9 in Class 2A Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team took one of two in a River Valley Conference doubleheader with Iowa City Regina Monday at Paul N. Bailey Field in Wellman. The early game featured a sound performance by the Regals in a 13-2 win in just six innings. Regina led wire-to-wire in their win. Scoring three times in the first, adding on another to go up 4-1 through three, tacking on another to lead 5-2 after four, then scoring five in the fifth and three in the sixth to end the game early. The Golden Hawk highlight was a Tatem Telfer homer, his third of the year.
The nightcap again saw the Regals race out to a fast start, but this time the Hawks would reel them in and complete a wild comeback for a 6-5 win in extra innings. Regina built a 5-0 lead through the first six frames, with a single run in the first, two more in the second and one tally each in the fifth and sixth. Down to their final three outs, the Hawks began a rally that never included a hit. In the seventh, Mid-Prairie sent 11 to the plate and scored five times to even the game on seven walks and a Regal error in the field. Just as improbable, once the Hawks tied the game, the bases remained loaded with no one out, Regina reliever Collin Baker forced extra innings by striking out the side. In the eighth, Carson Pence answered Mid-Prairie’s call to the ‘pen with a 1-2-3 inning. In the bottom half, the Golden Hawks walked it off. Brock Harland doubled with one down, Joe Hall walked, and Baker balked, bringing up Luke Traetow, who grounded to short and the Regals couldn’t make the play, allowing Harland to race home on the error. Golden Hawks of the game Traetow and Pence joined KCII Sports live on the postgame show to talk about their roles in the win.
Traetow said, “There was a balk, so guys were at second and third and I just knew I had to get this walk-off. That would make me pretty happy. Put it in play, beat out a ground ball. I knew it was going right to a fielder. I had to just try to beat it out and that’s what I did. I was pretty excited. It felt really good. Our energy really turned up in the seventh inning when our whole dugout was getting into the game. A win is a win.”
Pence continued, “I want to throw strikes. That’s what we need the most. We see too much in these games that the walks kills us a lot. My whole goal is to just come in and get outs. My fastball (was working). I feel like I had really good command of it. These are the situations I live for. I love being the guy that comes to shut the door and gets the job done when we need to. This win is definitely going to be a momentum booster. Those last two innings we stuck to our approach and got the job done!”
The Hawks were out hit in the win 5-3. Between the two teams there were 21 walks, five errors , three hit batters and 26 left on base. Harland, Gentry Bontrager, Hall and Brooks Weber had RBI for Mid-Prairie. Pence worked a clean inning to record the win in on the hill. The Golden Hawks are 11-4 after the split and travel to 4A Bettendorf tonight.