Just like clockwork, Mid-Prairie surges in postseason

KALONA -- Note to the Class 2A field at the state softball tournament: Don't do it.

Don't underestimate the Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks. Mock neither their record nor their ranking (or lack thereof).

And if you get them down, keep them down. Because they absolutely, positively will not quit.

Just ask Durant. The top-ranked Wildcats had a 4-0 lead as they went to the bottom of the seventh inning of their regional final with the Golden Hawks on Wednesday.

They needed three outs to reach the state tournament. They only got two.

In that time, Mid-Prairie scored five runs and pulled the rug out from underneath the Wildcats.

"I haven't stopped thinking about it," Mid-Prairie Coach Justin Lutjen said two days later. "It's a great memory that I will never forget."

Pitcher Olivia Lugar said, "We're just a team that doesn't give up. We'll fight as hard as we can until the end, no matter what. The score showed 4-0, but I don't think anybody thought it was over."

Mid-Prairie takes a 23-18 record into Monday's 2A quarterfinal against Nodaway Valley -- first pitch is 5 p.m. Monday at the Rogers Sports Complex at Fort Dodge.

At first, that record looks pedestrian. Then you see the competition the Golden Hawks faces in the regular season. The Golden Hawks played 14 games against Class 4A competition, winning six.

"We play a lot of really good 3A and 4A teams, and that gets us ready for the postseason," said Felicia Schulty, whose deep fly ball to left field was dropped, allowing the winning run to score against Durant.

Mid Prairie has made it to state six times since 1998, and only once (in 2005) did it come to Fort Dodge as a ranked team.

"(Former coach) Amy Rath did a great job getting this program to where it is," said Lutjen, who assisted Rath in 2009 before taking the head position last year. "There is passion for softball in this school, in this community. When we go on the road, at least 50 percent of the crowd is usually Mid-Prairie people."

Mid-Prairie's 20-player roster contains 10 sophomores.

"The biggest key is finding a role for everyone," Lutjen said. "We've got some great dugout leaders."

Leaders that refused to go down quietly at Durant. When Lutjen assembled his team in the middle of the seventh Wednesday, he "asked them the one thing that Mid-Prairie doesn't do is ... what?"

The response: "Quit."

Then the rally was on.

"It just kept getting louder and louder in the dugout," Schulty said. "The first batter hit a line drive, then we had two on, and we started saying, 'We're going to do this.' "

Then, after they did, Lutjen had more than 20 messages on his cell phone before he boarded the bus.

By Friday, though, the Golden Hawks were grounded again.

"We were ready to get back to work," Lugar said. "We want to keep this going."

MID-PRAIRIE'S MIRACLE FINISH

The Golden Hawks trailed No. 1 Durant, 4-0, in the middle of the seventh inning of Wednesday's Class 2A regional final at Durant. Here's what happened next:

* Molly McArtor led off with a single up the middle.

* Mariah Swartzendruber walked.

* Olivia Lugar doubled to left field. Durant 4, Mid-Prairie 1, runners at second and third.

* Emmie Leinen grounded out to first. One out.

* Kaitlin Kaalberg walked, bases loaded.

* Rachel Miller singled up the middle, two runs scored. Durant 4, Mid-Prairie 3.

* Erica Murphy hit an RBI single. Game tied at 4-4.

* Hannah Miller struck out. Two outs.

* Felicia Schulty hit a deep fly ball to left. E-7. FINAL: Mid-Prairie 5, Durant 4.