The No. 8 ranked Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team closed an undefeated week Friday with an impressive 18-8 win in five innings at the Mapleleaf Athletic Complex in Mount Pleasant over the Panthers. The Golden Hawks rolled all night, scoring eight times in the first inning on six hits, highlighted by an Aidan Rath three run homer. The Hawks would add six more in the second on five more hits as they went all the way through the lineup for the second straight inning, building a 14-0 lead. Mount Pleasant would claw back in, hitting around themselves in their half of the second scoring five times, but Mid-Prairie kept the Panthers at arms length with a run in the third, two in the fourth and one in the fifth to end the game early. After the contest, Golden Hawk head coach Kyle Mullet talked about his team’s approach at the plate and what they are doing well during their current winning streak. “We wanted to come into today and barrel some balls and get to our hitting approach. So before the game we had a good hitting session and talked things through. Seeing the ball well. It’s good to see us come out and do that. The biggest thing during this stretch is probably the runs we are scoring early. We are doing a great job of coming out and putting the ball in play, putting pressure on the other team to make defensive plays. High School baseball a lot of times comes down to who plays the cleanest defense. I am very happy that we have cut down on strikeouts and are putting the ball in play more consistently.”

In the game, Mid-Prairie finished with 19 hits. The Golden Hawks had 11 different players score a run and 11 different players with a hit. Kayden Reinier finished a home run shy of the cycle going four for four with four driven in and four runs scored. Rath was two for three with four RBI and a run scored. Alex Bean got the start and win for Mid-Prairie, working the first two innings. The Golden Hawks are now 8-2 on the year and travel to West Branch Monday.