Saturday was a sprint to the finish for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team as they hammered visiting Van Buren 15-3 in the Class 2A District 11 Championship game at Paul N. Bailey Field in Wellman. In a game heard on AM and FM KCII, the only arguable stumbling block came on the game’s second pitch, when the Warriors Jack Manning belted a solo homer to put the upstart and upset minded team from Keosauqua on top 1-0. From there it was all Golden Hawks. Mid-Prairie countered in the bottom half with two runs as Karson Grout and Dylan Henry provided RBI hits to drive in Cain Brown and Grout for a 2-1 advantage. The flood gates opened in the second. Mid-Prairie sent 11 to the plate, scoring six runs on three hits and three Warrior errors, the big swing, a Karson Grout grand slam to right. Grout, who finished a triple shy of the cycle, doubled his next time up to drive in Brock Harland and move the score to 9-1. Mid-Prairie put together another punishing frame in the fourth, scoring six more times with 10 batters as Brown, Harland, Alex Bean and Tyler Helmuth all drove in runs during the frame. On the mound, Golden Hawk starter Collin Miller got stronger as the night wore on, including striking out the final five batters in a row to close his four innings of work. After the game, Grout talked about the grand slam and Miller his night on the mound.

Grout said, “He gave me a low fastball with two strikes and I just turned on it, put a barrel on it. Probably first step out of the box, I said ‘oh yeah, that’s goin’. Oh my gosh, the feeling is unexplainable. I didn’t even know what to do. I was jumping up and down, sprinting around the bases. It was just unbeliveable.”

Miller said, “I had a good curveball, good fastball and two-seam and was able to locate. I knew that I had to bounce back early or things weren’t going to go well tonight.”

Eight of the nine in the Golden Hawk order scored a run, seven of the nine had a hit and six of the nine an RBI, led by Grout’s three for three night with six RBI and three runs scored. Helmuth and Harland each drove in two, Alex Bean had three hits. Miller went four in the win, giving up just one run and striking out seven. Mid-Prairie improves to 17-10, winning the third straight district title, and will play No. 6 West Marshall at Solon Tuesday in the Class 2A Substate final. The Trojans were a 13-0 winner over Williamsburg Saturday. You can hear all of the action between the Hawks and Trojans live from Solon Tuesday on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Washington HyVee Pregame Show at 6:30 and first pitch at 7p.m.