Photo Courtesy of Prep Baseball Iowa

The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team traveled to Durant Friday for an important game in the River Valley South Division Championship chase. The Golden Hawks got the win they needed, 3-0, and did it with style points. Both teams turned to their aces by the numbers, Tatem Telfer for Mid-Prairie and Colby Gast for Durant. Chances for the offenses were few and far between. The Golden Hawks cashed in on their best opportunity of the night in the second, sending eight to the plate, they had four hits, Dylan Henry, Landry Gingerich, Blake Swart and Brady Weber all singled with Hall, Gingerich and Swart scoring and RBI to Swart and Weber to build a 3-0 cushion. After the win, Mid-Prairie senior Blake Swart joined the postgame show to talk about the Hawks rally. Swart said, “My approach at the plate is to keep the ball on the ground. All my coaches have been telling me that at practice. That was my mentality going up there. I knew he was going to throw a lot of curveballs, so I was focused in staying on top of it. I got a good pitch to hit and I drove it. I wasn’t sure if it was going to get to down. I didn’t think I hit it hard enough. Luckily I did. I rounded first base and I was very relieved. We have a lot of good guys who put the ball in play a lot when we need to.”

Those three were more than enough for the Mid-Prairie staff on the night. Telfer and Gentry Bontrager won the arms race for the Hawks, combining to no-hit the Wildcats. Telfer was a force through six and two thirds, striking out 16, and walking five, he allowed just three balls put in play all night. He was lifted due to the pitch count rule, one out shy of a seven inning no-hitter. Bontrager entered and with the tying run at the plate, recorded a pop out to center to secure the no-hitter and win. After the game, Telfer spoke with KCII Sports on the postgame show about the outing. Telfer said, “From the beginning it was about dominating with my two fastballs. I had the two-seam and four-seam, then I stared mixing in the curveball and the slider. I was aware of the no-hitter. It didn’t really phase me. I just kept throwing. I had to get ahead. (After I came out) it was very nerve-wracking for me. I was standing in right, hoping they would hit it to me. I was hoping we would get that last out. This is a very big win. This is one of the better teams in our conference. They got a two-seed just like us in the playoffs. This was a key win for us.”

Mid-Prairie is now 16-7 on the year, 12-4 in first place in the RVC South as Durant drops to 14-11 overall 6-7 in the River Valley. These two will meet Monday in Wellman for a conference doubleheader.