Wednesday is the biggest day of what has already been a great season for the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team. Mid-Prairie is set to face off with Central Lee at Mediapolis in the Golden Hawk’s first substate final appearance in 13 years. The Golden Hawks are ranked No. 6 in class 2A in the final poll from the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association. The River Valley Conference Co-Champs have a 14-3 overall record after a 7-5 district championship win in Wellman over West Liberty on Saturday. Mid-Prairie was led in the game by Aidan Rath with two hits and four RBI including a three run homer. Keegan Gingerich recorded the win on the mound going six innings in the victory. For the season, Mid-Prairie is hitting .333 as a team, sixth best in 2A, led by Rath at .581 with a team best 25 hits, four home runs and 25RBI. Brad Tornow leads the Mid-Prairie offense with 27 runs scored. On the hill, the Golden Hawks have an overall ERA of 2.47, ninth best in 2A, led by Keegan Gingerich at 0.86 in 24 innings with a 4-0 record.

Central Lee comes into the game with an overall record of 11-1. They were state qualifiers a season ago in class 2A. They got by Mediapolis 2-1 on Saturday to win the class 2A district 10 championship. On the season the Hawks are hitting .317 as a team led by Luke Simmons at .441. Jadon Hawk leads Central Lee with 18 total hits and 16RBI. On the mound Central Lee has a team ERA of 1.31, best of any Mid-Prairie opponent this season, third in class 2A in Iowa. They are led by Dylan Stuecker with a 0.98ERA in 14 innings and a 1-0 overall record. Jadon Hawk is 4-0 in 22 innings with a 1.24, Kade Myhre has a 1-0 record in 12 innings with a 1.75ERA, TJ Stutes is 1-0 without giving up an earned run in eight innings this year and Adam Boeck has a 3-0 mark in 11 innings with a 0.64. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Andy Greiner and Golden Hawk pitcher Keegan Gingerich talked about what the district title means for Mid-Prairie and how they have been preparing for substate. “It means everything after playing with these guys for the last four years. We just need to come out, put the ball in play and clean up our defense and base-running. We just need to keep even keel, have a crisp practice or two and come out Tuesday attacking.”

These two teams last met in a playoff game in 2013 in Wapello where Mid-Prairie was a 2-0 winner. The winner of tonight’s game advances to the state tournament at Principal Park in Des Moines. Mid-Prairie is trying to get back to Des Moines for the first since 2007. You can hear all of the action tonight between the Golden Hawks and the Hawks of Central Lee 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.