The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team travels to Washington tonight to battle Davis County in the class 2A substate six final. The Golden Hawks enter play ranked No. 4 in the state in class 2A in the final poll of the season from the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association. They have a 19-7 overall record and were 14-4 champions of the south division of the River Valley Conference. Mid-Prairie won the class 2A district 11 title in walk-off fashion 5-4 Saturday at Paul N. Bailey Field over Williamsburg. Collin Miller was the winning pitcher and had the winning hit with Aidan Rath getting the tying hit and scoring the winning run. Mid-Prairie beat Iowa City Regina 10-0 in the first round. Mid-Prairie is hitting .354 as a team, best in class 2A. The Hawks have a staff ERA of 3.60. Individually, the Golden Hawks are led by three players hitting .400 or better with Rath topping the list at .500 with 42 total hits, 40RBI, 37 runs scored and a 2A best 12 homers. Karson Grout is at .429 and Keegan Gingerich .400. On the mound, Rath is 5-1 with a 0.99 ERA, Alex Bean, Gingerich, Miller and Grout are a combined 11-3 with a 4.23ERA. Mid-Prairie has not advanced to back to back state tournaments since the 2006 and 2007 seasons.

Davis County comes into the matchup fresh off of an upset of No. 12 Eddyville-Blakesburg 5-4 for the district 12 title Saturday. The Mustangs are 14-18 on the year, they finished 7-10, fifth in the South Central Conference. Against the Rockets, Noah Zmolek was two for two with three runs and an RBI. Easton White drove in two. On the season, the Mustangs are hitting .277 as a team with a combined ERA of 5.76. Individually, the Mustangs are led by Clay Collier with a .349 average. He has a team best 37 hits, 31 runs scored and 18 driven in. On the mound, Davis County is led by Dawson Townsend with a 4-2 record in 48 innings with a 4.11 ERA. This week, Mid-Prairie head coach Kyle Mullet talked about his team’s district title and what awaits them in the next round. “Got them together at the end, before the seventh inning and just told them, all the sweat you have put into this year. All the reps. They were all for this moment. Whatever happens here, I’m proud of you. They battled. You could see the confidence in them. In the seventh inning it was like the game was already tied. They want to get it. It’s great to see. When I saw the ball go through, I wasn’t even thinking in that moment. I looked over at Keegan Gingerich and he’s whoopin’ and hollerin’. This senior class has led the way. They want it. They’re hungry.  They want to get to state and win a state title. For Tuesday, we’ll stick to our approach and what we do. We’ll get a scouting report on Davis County, we’ll hit the defense, we’ll spend some time hitting and we’ll go from there.”

These two teams haven’t met on the diamond since 2012, a 12-1 Davis County win as the Mustangs were en route to their second consecutive state championship game appearance. The winner advances to next week’s class 2A state tournament at Merchant Field in Carroll. You can hear all of the action live tonight between the Mustangs and the Golden Hawks on AM 1380, FM 102.5 and KCIIradio.com. Beginning with the pregame show at 6:30 and the Premier Shed Shop and Champion Metal Supply first pitch at 7p.m.