Photo Courtesy of Jeff Yoder
The No. 14 in Class 2A Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team opened the 2025 River Valley Conference season on Memorial Day, going 1-1 in a doubleheader with the Tipton Tigers in Wellman. The Tigers took game one 3-2. The Hawks got good pitching from starter Tatem Telfer and Conner Wiles out of the pen, as they combined to go eight frames, allowing just two hits and three runs, but Mid-Prairie was plagued by six defensive errors. The Golden Hawk bats also had a hard time getting anything going against Tipton starter Jett Kamberling and Garret Fitch out of the pen, who held the Hawks to four hits and two runs. Mid-Prairie scored single tallies in the first and third with Brooks Weber driving home Blake Swart in both cases, once on a sac fly, the other on a ground out and the Golden Hawks had a 2-0 lead. Tipton runs in the fourth, seventh and eighth, all unearned, proved to be Mid-Prairie’s undoing. In the first game, the Hawks were led by Weber’s two RBI, Swart’s two runs, and two hits for Jason Heitman.
In the nightcap, the Hawks got a gem from senior starter Brady Weber on the mound, as he twirled a complete game in the 3-1 win. Weber was dominant against the Tiger bats all night, surrendering one run on four hits while striking out 11 on 95 pitches. His zeroes on the board were matched through the fifth by Tipton starter Braydon Colander. It was the Tigers that broke through first, pushing their run across in the sixth on a shallow fly to left from Kamberling that scored Jacob Langley. The Golden Hawk response in the bottom half came on a wild play that saw three runs score on a walk. Blake Swart drew a walk with two on base, the ball got through the catcher and Kendrick Kos raced home, the flip from the catcher to the pitcher was bobbled and rolled away after the play on Kos, to allow Heitman to score, behind the entire play, Swart never stopped running following his free pass, the Tigers attempted a play on him at third base and threw it in to left field allowing Swart to circle the bases. From there, Weber came back out for the seventh and slammed the door. He spoke after the game about his mindset to lock down the win.
Weber said, “Coach Tornow and Mullet, Gentry (Bontrager) did a great job. Gentry stole a lot of strikes for me tonight. I’m trying to throw strikes because I know I have a great defense behind me. Knowing that is a big thing for me, because I know I can pound the strike zone. I really didn’t have to do anything to get hyped up, great base running by our guys. After that I was like ‘they just made huge plays for me, now I have to go out there and do my best to throw strikes and get this thing locked down’.”
In game two Kos, Swart and Heitman scored runs, Brooks Weber, Gentry Bontrager and Heitman each had a hit. Mid-Prairie is 3-1 on the year and 1-1 in conference play as Tipton stands at 3-2 and 2-1 in the league. These teams meet for a rematch at Tipton Thursday.