OTTUMWA

Mid-Prairie head baseball coach Kyle Mullet quickly changed direction.

Heading out from the Golden Hawks dugout to the third-base coaching box in the seventh inning of a 2A substate final July 11, he turned around and gathered the Golden Hawks into a group.

“We’ve been in this situation before!” he shouted.

Those six inspirational words pumped up the Golden Hawks in a game they trailed, 6-4, at Legion Field in Ottumwa. Mid-Prairie junior Karson Grout reached base to give the Golden Hawks a chance, but Van Buren County pitcher Lucas Fett closed out the game to send the Warriors to this week’s state tournament in Carroll.

The Golden Hawks, who were ranked No. 2 in the state with a 27-7 record and a 15-game winning streak, were sent home a week early.

“It’s what’s so hard about this tournament, it’s one and done,” Mullet said. “You have one bad day. It can happen.”

After it was over, after they watched Van Buren’s players celebrate in front of the pitching mound with a state tournament banner, the Golden Hawks huddled in right field. Many of them embraced in emotional hugs.

“This is the greatest team I’ve ever been a part of,” said sophomore Brady Weber. “Wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else.”

“The other team played their butts off,” Grout said. “Who knows? We play them tomorrow and maybe we kill them. It’s just baseball.”

Mid-Prairie (27-6) ended its season just one win short of its second consecutive state appearance. The Golden Hawks piled up the most victories in one season since the 2008-09 team won 30 games.

“We had a very good team this year,” said Mullet, who as a freshman played on Mid-Prairie’s JV in 2008-09. “We had the pitching, we had the hitting, we had everything, we had the defense. It’s one of those things.”

Trailing 3-1, Mid-Prairie scored three runs in the fifth inning to take a 4-3 lead. Weber drove in Camron Pickard with a two-out single, then Dylan Henry drove in a pair of runs with a hit to center field.

Grout, a University of Iowa verbal recruit, reached base in the bottom of the seventh inning after being hit by a pitch, but the last two Golden Hawks were retired to end the game.

Three Van Buren pitchers held Mid-Prairie to five hits. In the seventh inning, after Grout was on base, a hit toward right field curved foul.

“It’s so hard to do this,” Mullet said. “Things have to go your way. Tonight, we couldn’t catch a break to save our life.”

Mid-Prairie pitchers Collin Brown, Weber and Alex Bean held Van Buren to six hits. But the Warriors struck for three runs in the seventh inning on a two-run hit, a walk, a wild pitch and a hit batter.

Van Buren (26-3), which was to play West Lyon in the 2A state quarterfinals Tuesday in Carroll, had won a pair of district games by a combined 22-0 score entering its battle with Mid-Prairie.

“That’s a hell of a team over there, Van Buren,” Mullet said. “We knew coming into this. For years Van Buren has been known for being gritty and having good baseball teams. Kind of the down-home boys from the south. They’re just good farm kids and they’re tough and they come out and compete. They did an awesome job.”

The loss was the first for Mid-Prairie since a one-loss setback to Regina Catholic on June 12. Since then, the Golden Hawks had won 15 straight by a combined 134-36.

Since becoming head coach in 2021, Mullet has coached the Golden Hawks to three consecutive district titles, a state tournament appearance and three substate final appearances.

Grout led the River Valley South in batting average (.457), hits (48) and RBIs (37), Miller was the conference’s top pitcher in wins (7) and strikeouts (74) and Cain Brown was the leader in runs scored (37).