The No. 6 ranked Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team is back on the diamond tonight at Paul N. Bailey Field in Wellman when they welcome River Valley foe West Liberty to town in the class 2A district nine championship game. The Golden Hawks come into the contest at 13-3 on the year. They pounded West Branch in the first round of the tournament Tuesday by a 12-2 score in six innings. For the season, the Golden Hawks are hitting .333 as a team, sixth best in class 2A. They are led by Aidan Rath, second in the state with his .581 average, 25 hits, 25 RBI and 19 runs scored. On the mound, Mid-Prairie has a team ERA of 2.47, led by Keegan Gingerich at 0.86 in 24 and a third innings with 25 strikeouts.
West Liberty comes into the game with an overall record of 8-5. They got by Wilton in the district semifinals by a 6-5 score. On the year the Comets are hitting .246 as a team led by Talen Dengler at .390 with 16 hits, 11RBI and 11 runs scored. On the hill West Liberty has a team ERA of 4.22 led by Caleb Wulf at 1.83 with a 3-1 overall record in 34 and a third innings pitched with 52 strikeouts. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Andy Greiner talked about his team’s win over West Branch and how they will get ready for Saturday. “We have a lot of momentum. Hitting is contagious and we have the bug. We have to continue to hit the ball well. We have hung our hat on our offense all year. We need to maintain our focus.”
These two teams met on June 29th with Mid-Prairie taking a 16-6 win in six innings in West Liberty. If Mid-Prairie gets the victory tonight it will be their first district title since 2007. You can hear all of the action live on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Washington HyVee pregame show at 6:30 and first pitch at 7p.m.