Battle of Hawks goes Golden

MEDIAPOLIS - A team cannot worry about winning or losing a game. Especially when it is playing baseball in a Class 2A substate final with the winner advancing to state. Just do the job your position calls for and the winning will happen.

Mid-Prairie had players doing their jobs up and down the lineup and out of the bullpen to hang on for a 9-7 victory over Central Lee Wednesday.

'We had some key at bats from everyone, which makes me so proud of the guys for staying with it,” Mid-Prairie head coach Andy Greiner said.

Everyone in the lineup reached base at least once and while there were errors in the field, plays were made at the right time.

'You have to be good and you have to be lucky,” Greiner said. 'We had a little bit of both this season and we are just hoping to maintain that.”

The Central Lee Hawks finish 12-2 while the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks are 15-3 and moving on to the state tournament.

Mid-Prairie went down in order the first two innings but a walk allowed Will Cavanagh to reach base in the third. Three walks and an error chased Central Lee's starter after two runs had scored. Another error plated two more runs for a 4-0 lead.

'All year I've been proud of our pitching, not walking anybody,” Central Lee head coach Shane Weirather said. 'But we walked the Nos. 8, 1 and 2 batters.”

CL had taken a 1-0 lead in the second inning and answered its disaster of a third inning with two runs to get within 4-3.

Brad Tornow started the M-P fifth inning with by lacing a double down the right-field line. An intentional walk to Aidan Rath followed, then Karson Grout singled them both home. Grout took second on the throw, reached third on a ground out and scored on Vinny Bowlin's sacrifice bunt for a 7-3 lead.

Chris Miller reached on an error to start the sixth inning and scored when Keegan Gingerich smashed the ball to left field for a double, taking third on the throw home. Gingerich scored on a ground out.

'The wheels started to come off,” Weirather said. 'I don't know that it was nerves or what.”

The 9-3 lead was 9-6 after CL scored three in the bottom of the sixth. The bases were loaded in the seventh but only one run scored.

Kayden Reinier started for M-P and went four innings with three strikeouts, three hits, two walks and three runs, all unearned. Monte Slabaugh started the fifth and gave up a walk to the first batter but Bowlin gunned him down trying to steal second and a groundout ended the inning. Two walks and a hit batter brought in freshman Collin Miller. The three runs scored were Slabaugh's and Miller got out of the inning with two fly outs and a ground out.

'Kayden was struggling throwing strikes,” Greiner said. 'We felt like we had a game plan and we knew we would see Monte, but we weren't sure we would see Miller. If we had a lead late, we were going to use him.”

The Golden Hawks were ranked sixth in the final poll yet were the visiting team for this game. The bottom of the seventh inning became a nail-biter.

It started with a walk, a pop out, then a hit batter. A strikeout was the second out, but two more walks followed, plating a run. With the bases loaded, Collin Miller struck out the final out and the celebration began.

'He is a strike throwing machine and we trust that he is going to do his job,” Greiner said. 'We had confidence in him even though he is a freshman. He fills the zone up. We want the other team to do something to earn the win.”

When a team has a lead, it's important to limit walks, yet M-P survived nine walks issued.

'They were squeezing the strike zone at the end,” Greiner said.

Bases loaded and the winning run at the plate is a lot of pressure on a team and especially on a freshman pitcher.

'We talked a lot about the pressure, that it can't be too much so that it is not fun to play,” Greiner said. 'I think we all had fun.”

Mid-Praire advances to the state tournament in Des Moines at Principal Park for the 2A quarterfinals Monday. The semifinals would be Thursday and all class finals are Saturday.