A day later, Prairie comes back to beat Marshalltown

CEDAR RAPIDS - It took Cedar Rapids Prairie about 23 hours, give or take a few minutes, for its first lead. The Hawks never let it go.Six runs in the fifth inning were enough for Prairie to overcome Marshalltown, 9-7, in a Class 4A substate semifinal last night at Prairie. The teams picked back up after bad weather postponed their game Monday night in the bottom of the third inning.A day made a huge difference, as Prairie was able to turn around a 3-2 deficit and advance to a 4A substate final tonight at Cedar Rapids Xavier.“We weren't really worried at all,” said Prairie's Brennan Hammer. “We just kind of needed to get back on the field. We had a talk this morning that we were down by one, but it didn't feel like it. We were ready to get out and play, and we took care of business.”Prairie (27-12) strung together six consecutive hits in the fifth, finally getting to soft-tossing southpaw Colton Hanke. He came back last night after throwing only 39 pitches Monday.Tyler Butz had a two-run double that put Prairie on top for good, 4-3. Caleb Davison and Tyler Votroubek followed with hits that produced three more runs.“We came back to the ballpark today and were all really relaxed,” Butz said. “It seemed right almost. It seemed like we were starting over, a fresh start. We just jumped on him.”“You've got to give him credit for keeping us off balance through four innings,” said Prairie Coach Matt Theden. “In the fifth inning, we finally caught up to him. Once we got to their bullpen, we knew it was going to be a different story. That's what we kept telling our guys, let's get to their bullpen, and we'll be fine.”Marshalltown (17-25) did bring the tying run to the plate in both the sixth and seventh innings. Hanke, in fact, pulled a long drive to right field that appeared to have home-run distance just foul.Spencer Dean got the save for Hammer. Prairie and Xavier (24-15) split their regular-season double-header."We're going to bring our 'A' game. Come ready to play," Butz said. "We'll see what happens."Mitch Keller (5-4, 1.62 earned run average most likely will start for Xavier. It'll be interesting to see who Prairie goes with, considering its top three pitchers (Hammer, Dean and Mitchell Adams) all pitched over the last two days.