The No. 14 in Class 2A Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team won the arms race with Class 4A Davenport West 2-0 in their season opener Thursday night in Wellman. After a scoreless first frame, Mid-Prairie broke through in the second for the only runs of the contest. Landry Gingerich led the off the inning with a double and Gentry Bontrager walked, setting up Denver Nelson, in his first varsity at bat, down two strikes, to drive a ball back through the box and plate both men. Those two tallies were more than enough for the Mid-Prairie pitching staff. Tatem Telfer was electric, blowing away the 4A Falcons with a blazing fast ball en route to six shut out innings and 10 punch outs on just 79 pitches to record the win. Conner Wiles got the save out of the pen working one frame with a pair of strikeouts. Mid-Prairie head coach Kyle Mullet joined KCII Sports Friday to talk about his biggest takeaways.

Mullet said, “Telfer went six innings and was just dominant. He really overpowered them. He had his command Thursday. His stuff is good on his own, his velocity. So when he can locate, he’s very tough. Wiles came in and got those two big strikeouts and shut the door for us. Couldn’t be more proud of Denver (Nelson). First at-bat of his varsity career and it’s a two-strike single. That’s huge! An opportunity presented itself and he made the most of it!”

The Hawks out hit the Falcons 4-3, drew a pair of walks, stole two bases and had just one error. The win started Mid-Prairie at 1-0 and Davenport West at 0-1. The Golden Hawks are back on the diamond Memorial Day night for a doubleheader at Paul N. Bailey Field in Wellman against the Tipton Tigers to begin defense of their River Valley Conference Division title. You can hear all of the action live on AM 1380, FM 102.5, the KCII2 App and KCIIradio.com, beginning with the Golden Hawk baseball pregame show at 4:30p.m. And first pitch of game one at five.