Class 2A Bracket: Mid-Prairie gets familiar foe

The Class 2A state baseball bracket was released on Wednesday and Mid-Prairie has a first round opponent it knows a thing or two about.

The Golden Hawks (18-10) received the No. 6 seed in the tournament. The Golden Hawks will take on third-seeded Cascade, which sports a 20-5 record.

Mid-Prairie and Cascade played once before this season. The Golden Hawks fell at Cascade 3-0 on June 9.

The two teams face off once per year. Before this June, Mid-Prairie had won the last two contests between the two squads.

Mid-Prairie and Cascade are playing the only rematch of the first round. None of the other three matchups have happened anytime in the last four years. The only other matchup in the last eight years happened when Kuemper Catholic beat Van Meter 5-3 in the state quarterfinals in 2017.

The Golden Hawks had to pull off an upset of West Marshall in the Substate 6 final. Mid-Prairie knocked off West Marshall 3-1 on Tuesday night to earn its spot.

Cascade played in Substate 5, and the Cougars had a close game of their own, knocking off West Liberty 6-3.

Class 2A saw a number of close Substate finals. The only blowouts came from top-seeded Van Meter, which knocked out Pocahontas Area 11-1, and fourth-seeded Beckman Catholic, which won 8-1 against Jesup.

No. 2 seed Estherville Lincoln Central won its substate final 6-1 over Hinton. No. 5 seed Dike-New Hartford won a wild one over Osage, 11-10. Seventh-seeded Interstate 35 pulled out a 5-3 win over Davis County, and No. 8 seed Kuemper Catholic upset Clarinda 6-2.

Mid-Prairie is one of three teams with double digit losses in the field of eight. Beckman Catholic is 24-13 on the year, and Kuemper Catholic is 20-16.

All quarterfinal games for Class 2A will be played Tuesday. The semifinals are on Thursday, with the final happening on Friday after the Class 1A championship.