Friday night is a big opportunity for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball program. When the Golden Hawks take the field against the Durant Wildcats in Wellman on Senior Night, they will honor their senior’s contributions with a pregame ceremony, and also have a chance to do it with some hardware. A victory for the Hawks clinches a share of the River Valley Conference title. Mid-Prairie is 19-6 on the season and 13-1 in the RVC, three games up in the standings over Iowa City Regina with four games remaining. The Hawks have won seven in a row entering tonight after beating West Liberty on the road 7-3 Thursday. For the year, Mid-Prairie is hitting .292 as a team with 157 runs on 190 hits. Karson Grout is at .416 with 32 hits and 22 RBI. Cain Brown has scored 26 times. The Golden Hawk team ERA is 2.84 with a .216 opponent average on 137 hits, 68 earned runs 78 walks and 188 strikeouts. Brock Harland, Brady Weber, Collin Miller, Landry Gingerich and Gentry Bontrager are a combined 13-0 in 98 innings with a 1.80 ERA.

Durant is 13-8 overall, 10-5, third place in the River Valley after a 15-5 win in six innings over Midland Thursday. The Wildcats are hitting .327 as a group with 182 runs on 192 hits. Connor Schwartz is at .471 with 32 hits with 25 driven in and scored, all team bests. The ‘Cats have a collective ERA of 2.86 with a .204 opponent average on 100 hits, 55 earned runs, 79 walks, and 138 strikeouts. Ryan Wulf is the wins leader at 5-3 with a 2.08 ERA.

The Wildcats have won the last three in the series including a doubleheader sweep by 13-0 and 5-4 decisions last year. A conference title would be the first of any kind for the Golden Hawks since winning the south division in 2021 and the overall RVC in 2020. Mid-Prairie will also honor five seniors including Alex Bean, Cain Brown, Collin Miller, Camron Pickard and Jackson Zahradnek. You can hear all of the action live on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Jessica Yoder and Sarah Bigley with Lepic Kroeger Realtors Pregame Show at 6:30 and first pitch from Wellman at 7p.m.