Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie Baseball Social Media

The No. 12 in Class 2A Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team celebrated their seniors early, but it was the No. 2 in Class 1A Burlington Notre Dame Nikes who celebrated at the end of the night, with a 5-4 win in Wellman in the regular season finale for both teams. Notre Dame got on the board first with single runs in the first and third frames to build a lead against Mid-Prairie starter Brock Harland. The Golden Hawk answer came in the third, when Mid-Prairie sent eight to the plate, scoring three runs to take their first lead of the game. Bowen Burmeister, Tatem Telfer and Dylan Henry all hurried home on RBI hits by Harland and Joe Hall to make it 3-2 Hawks. In the fourth, the lead expanded when Telfer singled in Brady Weber, who had reached on an error, to go up 4-2. Burlington Notre Dame drew even in the sixth with two runs. They would take the lead for good in the seventh with an unearned run. The Hawks threatened in their last at bat, moving the tying run to third and getting the winning run on, but could not drive them in. Live on the KCII Postgame Show, Golden Hawk head coach Kyle Mullet talked about what he saw from his team.

Mullet said, “Brock (Harland). What a great outing for a senior on Senior Night. He’s got good velocity with good command. He’s also got good off-speed pitches he’s able to throw early in the count for strikes and use them for put out pitches with two strikes. He did those things well tonight, he was able to locate, and that led to his success. Offensively tonight, we had timely hitting from some guys. It was so good to see Joe (Hall) have that big hit and have success, especially on Senior Night. He’s a great guy and really works hard. Tatem Telfer and Brock Harland also did a great job at the plate tonight. It’s good to see our guys sticking with it and getting better. I have been really happy with our offense lately. Two weeks ago we talked about what we needed to do and how we needed to turn it around and the guys really have.”

The Hawks were out hit on the night 9-5. Mid-Prairie drew seven walks, but committed three errors. Notre Dame closer Caden Schwenker was the winning pitcher, throwing four innings, giving up two hits and one earned run, striking out three. Harland went the distance on the hill for the Hawks with nine hits, three earned runs, a walk and five strikeouts. At the plate, Burmeister had a two hit day with a run scored. Telfer, Harland, and Hall had the other hits. Hall drove in two, Telfer and Harland each had an RBI. The Nikes are now 26-3 on the year, Mid-Prairie is 19-9. Each team moves on to open the playoffs Tuesday. The Golden Hawks honored eight seniors prior to the game, including, Jackson Miller, Kurt Schneider, Dylan Henry, Carson Pence, Brock Harland, Luke Traetow, Joe Hall and Bowen Burmeister.