Season ends for Mid-Prairie, Iowa Mennonite

Two area high school baseball games that were suspended due to weather Saturday were resumed Monday, but the results were not the desired ones for Mid-Prairie and Iowa Mennonite School.

West Branch 7, Mid-Prairie 6

The Golden Hawks lost the Class 2A District 6 game in Wellman.

It was a tale of two games with the Bears dominating the first innings Saturday before the suspension of play and Mid-Prairie rallying in the last half of the game that finished Monday.

Kayden Reinier had two RBI and Aidan Rath poked a two-run home run in the sixth inning that closed the deficit to a single run.

Mid-Prairie had trailed as much as 5-0.

'We are sad to see the season come to a close, but extremely proud of the way the team fought to the very end,” Mid-Prairie coach Andy Greiner said. 'We wish our two seniors (Cale Robertson and Ashton Bush) well and look forward to 2020.”

West Branch (19-7) advances to play Camanche (18-11) today for the right to play at the state tournament in Des Moines starting Friday.

Mid-Prairie ends the year at 18-12.

Pekin 11, Iowa Mennonite 8

Pekin claimed a Class 1A District 8 title with the win in Kalona. The Panthers (16-8) will play Calamus Wheatland (33-3) for a state berth.

This game resumed with Pekin holding a 3-0 lead in the first inning. The Panthers ended the first with a 5-0 lead and scored three more in the third inning.

IMS rallied with two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth, but the Panthers matched those with three in its half of the sixth. IMS rallied with four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Cody Jones went 2 for 4 with an RBI-single and a three-run double. IMS teammate Eli Ours had a two-run single. Noah Miller connected on a double. Kobe Borntrager had two singles.

'I'm proud of the way our guys kept competing and gave us opportunities to get back into the game after Pekin had a big first inning,” IMS coach Danny Hershberger said. 'Cody Jones stepped up big for us tonight and had two big hits, getting four RBI.”

Blake Bontrager threw 3 1/3 innings for IMS with seven hits and eight runs allowed, six earned. He walked one and struck out six. Ours pitched 3 2/3 innings with three hits and three runs allowed, but only one run was earned. He struck out four and walked three.

IMS ends its season with a record of 13-8.