Photo Courtesy of Jeff Yoder
The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk softball team completed a clean season sweep of conference rival West Branch on the road Wednesday. The Hawks took the River Valley Conference contest 15-1 in just five innings. Mid-Prairie asserted themselves early, sending 12 to the plate in the top of the first, scoring seven times, Dakota Mitchell, Brenna Jehle, Brooklyn Schneider, Hannah Sellers, Olivia Swartzentruber, Kadence Grout and Molly Yoder all came around to score in the frame. Hits belonged to Mitchell and Jehle, two each, and one apiece for Sellers, Grout and Yoder with RBI for Mitchell, Jehle, Sellers, Yoder and two for Grout. It was 9-0 after the top of three when Yoder and Mitchell scored on RBI hits by Jehle and Sydney Knebel. After a Lanie Meyer solo homer for the Bears in the bottom half, the Hawks finished the game with three runs in each of their next two at bats. In the fourth, It was a Mitchell RBI double that brought in Swartzentruber and Yoder and a Sophie Miller single that scored Mitchell to make it 12-1. The fifth saw Sellers, Madeline Schrader and Swartzentruber all touch home on RBI knocks from Grout and Yoder.
In total, the Hawks out hit the Bears 15-3. Eight of the nine players in the Golden Hawk lineup had at least one hit, eight of the nine scored at least one run and seven of the nine had an RBI. Golden Hawk of the game, Dakota Mitchell, joined the KCII postgame show live Wednesday, to talk about her team’s approach at the plate and her night with the bat. Mitchell said, “The mentality was to sit back and wait on it, drive the ball. It was important to come out early and score because it set the tone for the game. I was proud of our team for coming out strong. I knew I barreled up tonight and it felt good. I’ve been struggling at the plate this year, and I was glad that I made contact.”
She finished four for five with three RBI and three runs scored. Grout drove in three on a hit with a run scored. Yoder had a pair driven in with three runs scored on two hits. Knebel recorded the win in the circle for the Hawks, going five innings, giving up just three hits and one run. The win was the 10th on the year for Mid-Prairie, their third against West Branch this season, by a combined 40-2 score, moving them to 10-8 overall, 7-4 in the RVC, dropping the Bears to 6-13 and 3-9 respectively. The Golden Hawks are back on the diamond tonight in Kalona, when they matchup with top ranked Iowa City Regina, after dropping a pair to the Regals on the road Monday.