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6th-inning surge sends No. 12 Prairie past Liberty, ending a 9-game skid
Hawks freshman Emeri Hill collects four hits in ‘really big win’
Jun. 26, 2025 9:20 pm, Updated: Jun. 27, 2025 7:59 am
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CEDAR RAPIDS — It wasn’t as if they were getting destroyed every game. But a skid is a skid.
“We were in most of those games,” Cedar Rapids Prairie’s Riley Redig said. “We were close. But it was hard to get over that hump.”
The Hawks scaled it Thursday night.
Class 5A 12th-ranked Prairie scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and topped Iowa City Liberty, 11-6, in the first game of a Mississippi Valley Conference softball doubleheader at Prairie High School.
“A really big win,” Redig said. “We had to stay persistent, and we had to keep doing our jobs.”
Game 2 was rained out, and will be played at 7 p.m. Monday.
For the Hawks (15-12 overall, 10-11 MVC), the outcome put a nine-game losing streak to rest.
Five of those losses were decided by two runs or less.
“I had a feeling that today was going to be a good day,” freshman Emeri Hill said after a 4-for-4 performance that highlighted Prairie’s 13-hit attack.
“We were able to find each other and put it all together.”
The Hawks got a load of production out of their top four hitters: Redig, Hannah Rudd, Lola Hawkins and Hill combined to reach base 13 times in 17 plate appearances.
Hill started the decisive rally with a one-out single. Reece Goerdt put the Hawks in front for good with a two-run single, then Redig topped it off with a two-run double.
Then it was a matter of getting three final outs and staying out of storm’s way.
It wasn’t a crisp game — nearly 2 1/2 hours, with both teams committing four errors.
Hill’s performance gained her 41 points in her season batting average, from .269 to .310.
“She wants to get up there and hit,” Redig said. “I trust her.”
Prairie held early leads of 4-1 and 5-2, but Liberty (14-13, 11-9) rallied to tie with three unearned runs in the fifth, then Ava Tague’s RBI groundout got the Lightning even at 6-6 in the top of the sixth.
Lyla Canny got the win in relief for the Hawks.
Cedar Rapids Prairie 11, Iowa City Liberty 6
At C.R. Prairie
GAME 1
Iowa City Liberty 101 031 0 — 6 6 4
C.R. Prairie 220 115 x — 11 13 4
Kaelyn Rickels, Lexi Werle (6) and Kennedy Conner. Tatum Goerdt, Lyla Canny (6) and Lola Hawkins. W — Canny (6-4). L — Rickels (4-3).
Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com
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