After seeing just two total hits in a pair of losses on Friday, Mid-Prairie softball coach Matt Hoeppner challenged his team to show up early on Monday to put in some extra work. 

The pregame practice paid off as the Golden Hawks had 13 hits in a 12-1, 6-0 sweep of Tipton.

Hoeppner asked the girls to arrive half an hour early for the RVC doubleheader. 

“Most of them showed up even earlier than that,” he said. “By the time I got here, they had already been here and were getting to work. There’s just a dedication to turn this program around.”

The Golden Hawks scored four runs in the first inning and ended the game early with seven more in the fifth. Katelyn Schneider was 2 for 2 with a triple and a walk and drove in four runs for Mid-Prairie. 

Senior Myah Lugar pitched all five innings and allowed one unearned run on two hits and one walk. She struck out four and went 2 for 3 at the plate. 

Dawsyn Miller reached base on error twice and drove in two runs. 

Miller made the start in game two and allowed three hits and three walks over seven shutout innings. After the leadoff runner reached base in the first inning, Miller made a diving catch on a short pop up and doubled the runner off of first. 

“She’s kind of been on and off here and there all season and tonight she battled through,” Hoeppner said. “If there was a walk or there was an error behind her and runners got on base, she battled through and competed in high leverage situations in a close game, which is something she hadn’t done yet in her career and it’s good to see her get a complete game shutout.”

Schneider went 2 for 4 at the plate, giving her four hits for the day. Gabi Robertson had a hit and scored two runs in each game and Brittany Kinsinger had a hit in both games as well.

Mid-Prairie has won four of its last seven games after a 4-22 start. Two more victories will give the Golden Hawks a double-digit win total for the first time since 2017. 

Mid-Prairie 15, Holy Trinity 1; Mid-Prairie 13, Holy Trinity 3

The bats were swinging for Mid-Prairie’s softball team in a doubleheader against Holy Trinity Catholic on June 23.

Pounding out 42 hits in two games, and scoring 10 runs in one inning in Game 1, the Golden Hawks swept Holy Trinity, 15-1 and 13-3.

It was the first doubleheader sweep for Mid-Prairie (6-22) in more than two years.

The Golden Hawks hadn’t scored this many runs in two games since the 2014 team began a 32-win season with 18-10 and 12-0 victories against West Branch.

Mid-Prairie freshman catcher Hannah Sellers had three hits in each game, driving in five runs.

Landry Pacha, a sophomore, hit a home run among her three hits in Game 1, and scored three times.

Brittany Kinsinger, a junior first baseman, led the Golden Hawks in Game 2 with four hits, an RBI and three runs scored.

Among those joining the hit parade were sophomore Madeline Schrader, eighth-grader Dakota Mitchell and junior Katelyn Schneider, who each had five hits over the two games. Freshman Gabi Robertson and junior Dawsyn Miller each had three hits in Game 1.

Myah Lugar, a senior, pitched in both games, totaling nine strikeouts, and also had two hits in each game.

After falling behind 1-0 in the first inning of the opening game, the Golden Hawks scored 10 times in the second inning to blow the game open. A similar thing happened in Game 2, when the Hawks turned a 1-0 deficit into a 6-1 lead by the fourth inning. They scored seven runs in the final two innings.

Linn-Mar Tournament

Mid-Prairie dropped a pair of games, to Fort Dodge and Waverly-Shell Rock, on the first day of the Linn-Mar Tournament in Marion this past Friday. Two more games scheduled for Saturday were called off due to wet grounds.

The Golden Hawks ran into the second-ranked team in Class 5A in the opening game of the tournament.

Lydia Lara and Lucy Porter of Fort Dodge combined for a three-inning no-hitter and a 12-0 victory.

The Dodgers (26-4) scored 11 runs in the first inning and one run in the second. Tory Bennett and Tristin Doster each had two hits.

The Golden Hawks lost to Waverly-Shell Rock, 3-2, in the second game Friday.

Waverly-Shell Rock senior pitcher Marley Hagerty struck out 15 and allowed just two Mid-Prairie hits.

Mary Carolus and Grace Mraz each had two hits for the Go-Hawks (12-15).

Anamosa 2, Mid-Prairie 1

The Golden Hawks nearly knocked off Anamosa, the sixth-ranked team in Class 3A, on June 24 at Mid-Prairie Middle School.

Tied 1-1, Anamosa (22-6) scored a run in the eighth inning to top Mid-Prairie.

Dakota Mitchell led the Golden Hawks with two hits and two stolen bases, and she scored Mid-Prairie’s run in the first inning.

Senior pitcher Myah Lugar struck out five and gave up just three hits.