Grout and Golden Hawks prepare for postseason

By Douglas Miles
Posted 6/28/22

It has been a bit of a whirlwind week for Karson Grout.

The Mid-Prairie sophomore baseball standout navigated through five games in an eight-day span last week, sandwiched around a Wednesday trip …

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Grout and Golden Hawks prepare for postseason

Posted

It has been a bit of a whirlwind week for Karson Grout.

The Mid-Prairie sophomore baseball standout navigated through five games in an eight-day span last week, sandwiched around a Wednesday trip to Lawrence, Kan. for an Area Code baseball tryout for the Chicago White Sox. The event featured 70-plus high school ballplayers spanning eight geographical regions in competition for 22 spots.

“Supposedly if you make one of the teams, you are going to get drafted,” Grout said after the Class 2A eighth-ranked Golden Hawks lost, 8-4, to Iowa City Regina in a River Valley Conference baseball game Tuesday night at Mid-Prairie High School. “So that is the goal.”

Grout figured to miss his team’s game scheduled Wednesday for Wilton, but it was canceled due to an umpire shortage.

When Mid-Prairie returned to action on Thursday at Camanche, Grout gave the Golden Hawks three scoreless innings on the mound. He allowed just one hit, walked three and struck out four. At the plate, the University of Iowa commit singled, walked twice, drove in a run and scored three times in a 17-7 Golden Hawks’ win.

“We are really just trying to keep putting the ball in play,” Grout said. “Because balls will fall. We are hitting the ball well. We are hitting deep fly balls. We are hitting hard ground balls. Hard line drives. Sometimes it is just right at a guy and there is not much you can do about that.”

Following the win over Camanche, Mid-Prairie (13-10, 8-8 River Valley Conference) enjoyed three days off before losing to Durant on Monday night. The Golden Hawks have won six of their last 10 games.

“Our approach has been a lot better,” Mid-Prairie senior Will Cavanagh said. “We have been making better contact because we have been looking for better pitches early in the count. Avoiding swinging at off-speed early and just finding good fastballs to hit.”

Mid-Prairie closes the regular season with a Tuesday game against Bellevue at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids, then the home finale Wednesday versus Washington. 

The Golden Hawks await the winner of Cardinal of Eldon and Central Lee in a district playoff opener July 5 at Mid-Prairie High School.

“We are definitely trying to clean up some of the little things and errors,” Grout said. “Which is something we can’t have. And then also with pitching, just more strikes. Less free bases because when it gets to playoff time, those are going to be the difference in games between wins and losses.”

Mid-Prairie earned the second seed in the district behind ninth-ranked Mediapolis, which opened the season with 18 wins in a row. The Golden Hawks are still awaiting the return of starting pitcher Alex Bean (slight shoulder tear), a junior who has a 2.62 earned run average in limited action this season.

“It is all about us playing clean baseball and getting our bats going,” second-year Mid-Prairie baseball coach Kyle Mullet said. “We are dealing with some injuries right now. We have got two of our top pitchers that are out. Dealing with that, so hopefully we can get them healthy and get back to rolling for districts.”