Senior Night spurs Mid-Prairie to 1st victory

KALONA - It is a rewarding sight to see a high school softball team sitting in a circle and doing simultaneous backward somersaults to jump up. That's what Mid-Prairie did Monday after getting its first win of the season 13-3 over the visitors from Monticello.

The Golden Hawks celebrated five seniors - Abbi Patterson, Georgia Nisly, Kendra Schaefer, Lanie Bowlin and Jaselyn Robertson - before the game and all made significant contributions in the victory.

Hawks head coach Mallory McArtor might wish it was Senior Night every night.

'This team has played like this in the past,” she said. 'It has just been a slow build up to this point.”

Mid-Prairie could've had it's our first win Friday against Wilton (8-2) but one 'little mental error” allowed Wilton a 6-5 win when it could have been 'our 5-3 win.”

Patterson got the win Monday by allowing a lone hit, a walk, and got four strikeouts. All the runs were unearned.

She got a lot of run support with a seven-run first inning. Rylee Vercande led off with a triple. She also had three singles and batted in two runs. Patterson plated Vercande with a single. Nisly was hit by a pitch. Robertson batted in two runs with a single. She would go 3-for-4 on the night. Bowlin reached on a fielder's choice. Landry Pacha hit a stand-up double for a run. Karsen Jehle had a run-scoring single. Schaefer had a single. Vercande's second at bat of the first inning was a two-run single. Eleven batters went to the plate.

'It was all about keeping our eye on the ball,” Robertson said. 'We worked on that at practice a lot today when we worked with a batting coach.”

It was the first day Mid-Prairie had a batting coach at practice and the Hawks put 13 runs on the board.

'I think those two things are related,” Robertson said.

Patterson did not allow a runner until two out in the third inning when she hit a batter, who scored on a fielding error. The other two runs came in the fourth on a walk, two errors and a double steal.

'I was consistently hitting all my spots with my pitches and that helps me be really confident with them,” Patterson said. 'Being Senior Night, it was really exciting to pitch that well.”

'Our five seniors bring a lot of confidence and energy to the team,” McArtor said. 'They have great leadership, they are loud and have a very positive impact. The chemistry they have together gives this team a great flow.”

The Hawks added two runs in the third when Jehle's first of two triples plated a run, then Schaefer's sacrifice scored Jehle. Pacha batted in Robertson in the fourth. Bowlin batted in a run in the fifth. Jehle's triple in the sixth scored a run, the Schaefer batted in Jehle with the game winner.

'I'm excited because we're getting better leading up into the postseason,” Patterson said. 'I am excited About how we are playing.”

One thing the Hawks excel at is making noise in the dugout.

'One game we were down by eight runs and the other team was still quieter than we were and their coach asked them, ‘why aren't you as loud as this team,'” Robertson said.

'Even if we have a bad inning on defense, our team stays super loud and that helps us stay positive,” Patterson said. 'It was awesome to have my Senior Night go out like this.”