The top-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie Hawks captured their first Class 4A baseball championship with a crushing 12-3 victory over the Iowa City West Trojans, Saturday night at Principal Park. It was an all-out slugfest as the teams combined for 18 hits with multi-hit games by five players.
Prairie grabbed the first lead in the bottom of the first when Cal Clark pushed Blake Viall across the plate with a RBI-single to left field to give the Hawks the 1-0 lead. Clark led the Prairie offense going 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored.
Iowa City tied the game in the top of the second inning as Logan Sims drilled a single to right field to score Nate Disterhoft, who reached base on a walk. Sims finished the night 2-for-2 with a RBI and a walk.
The Trojans extended their lead to 3-1 in the next inning when Oliver Martin and Spencer Wiskus knocked back-to-back singles to left and right, respectively. Disterhoft snagged his first hit of the night with a two-run single to push them both across the plate.
A pair of walks put two runners on for Prairie as Levi Usher stepped up to the plate. Usher sparked a scoring drive for the Hawks with a two-out double down the left field line, scoring two and tying the game at three. Viall continued the Hawks’ hitting brigade with a RBI-single to left to put Prairie up, 4-3.
Alex Mixon blew the game wide open for Prairie when he ripped a two-run double to left field in the bottom of the fifth. The Hawks added four more runs off a RBI-single by Clark, an error, a sac fly and a walk for a six-run fifth inning. Prairie tallied two insurance runs in sixth to make the score, 12-3.
Cedar Rapids Prairie finishes the season at 38-6.
Iowa City West ends at 36-6.