Photo Courtesy of Jeff Yoder

The No. 1 ranked Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team remained perfect in River Valley Conference play with a clean sweep of the West Branch Bears Friday night at Paul N. Bailey Field in Wellman in a league doubleheader. Mid-Prairie beat the Bears by scores of 6-2 in the opener and 6-0 in the nightcap. The Hawks put together wire-to-wire wins in both ends of the series. In the opener, the Hawks scored four times in the second, with Landry Gingerich, Gentry Bontrager, Collin Miller and Camron Pickard all coming home. Pickard and Cain Brown supplied the RBI contact in the frame. Another went on the board in the third when Karson Grout walked and came in on a wild pitch. The Bears got on the board in the fourth, Mid-Prairie starter Alex Bean ran into some control problems in the inning with three walks and Noah Peterson had an RBI single to score Connor Rios to make it 5-1. Mid-Prairie got that run back in the seventh when Miller singled and came home on Brown’s second two out RBI hit of the night. The Bears got an unearned run in the seventh. Bean was a steady hand for the Hawks on the hill, collecting his second win of the season with five innings of work, giving up one hit, one run, walking three and striking out seven. Landry Gingerich recorded the final six outs out of the pen. Brown had two hits and two driven in, Miller scored twice and Pickard had a hit, run and RBI.

In the nightcap, the Hawks got a terrific outing from their staff, recording a two hit shut out. Sophomore Brady Weber started things off, taking a no-hitter into the fifth, before a Reese Gingerich single spoiled the party. Weber exited in the fifth frame, during the only real jam of the night, with two on and one out, then ultimately bases loaded with two away, Joe Hall came out of the pen to strike out Ian Nelson and Reese Trepanier to put out the fire. In the sixth, Cain Brown started the frame with a walk and hit batter before regrouping to strike out the side. Carson Pence worked a 1-2-3 seventh for the Hawks. With the strong performance on the mound, Mid-Prairie got enough at the plate for the win. The Golden Hawks took the lead with an unearned run in the second as Bean singled, then scored on an error. In the third, Mid-Prairie scored a trio. The inning started with three straight hits, Brown singled, then Dylan Henry, before Karson Grout ripped an opposite field double to left to make it 3-0. He would score later on a Weber ground out. Mid-Prairie added on with single runs in the fifth as Brock Harland came in on a wild pitch and Harland doubled in Bean in the sixth. The Hawks had nine hits in the nightcap. Weber worked four and a third for the win, giving up just the one hit, walking one and striking out eight. The Golden Hawks are now 9-2 on the season and 6-0 in the RVC, with a trip to Wilton coming Monday.