It’s a quick turnaround on Saturday for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team when they meet West Branch in a River Valley Conference contest. The Hawks, who are 4-2 this season and ranked No. 2 in Class 2A in the first poll of the year from the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association, took care of business in Wellman Friday night against No. 6 Williamsburg 7-3. The Hawks were led in the home top ten showdown by Alex Bean and his three for three night at the plate with four RBI. He was also the winning pitcher, going four innings against the Raiders. On the season, the Hawks are hitting .240 as a team, with 36 hits, 27 runs scored, 34 walks and 36 strikeouts. They are led by Karson Grout’s .400 average. He has a team best eight hits, six runs scored and one homer. Bean has the team lead with seven driven in. On the mound, Mid-Prairie’s collective ERA is 3.41 in 41 innings thrown with a .250 opponent batting average against, allowing 40 hits, 20 earned runs, 21 walks and striking out 47. Brady Weber, Cain Brown and Brock Harland have combined for more than nine innings of work without allowing a run. Harland, Carson Pence, Collin Miller and Bean each have one win.

West Branch is 0-3 this year after getting swept in three games by West Liberty this week by a combined 31-5 score. The Bears are hitting .103 as a team with a .255 OBP, .128 slug, four total hits, five runs, four walks and 23 Ks. Max Lodge leads the Bears individually with two hits in six tries. West Branch has a team ERA of 3.97 with a .188 opponent batting average against, surrendering six hits, seven earned runs, eight walks and striking out six. Reese Trepanier and Nolan Staker have worked a total of seven innings without allowing an earned run. The Hawks and Bears split their two meetings last year with Mid-Prairie taking one 10-6 and losing the other 1-0. The Hawks have won 25 of the last 35 over the Bears. You can hear all of the action live between the Bears and Hawks on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Jessica Yoder and Sarah Bigley with Lepic Kroeger Realtors Pregame show at 9:30a.m. and first pitch at 10 from West Branch.