The Prairie baseball team fell behind early against Iowa City West Thursday night and never caught up.

The Trojans scored six runs in the first inning and posted an 11-4 victory in a Mississippi Valley Conference game at Prairie.

The Hawks got two outs in the first inning, but they couldn’t get off the field as Iowa City West had five straight hits to jump on top.

“It all comes down to the first inning, somebody has to make a play to get us out of there,” Prairie Coach Matt Thede said. “If we make a play in the first inning, that is one run instead of six and it’s a whole different ballgame then.”

Prairie (10-11, 6-7) collected eight hits in the game, including a pair from Brennan Hammer, but the hole was too big.

“Dustin (Carlson) threw strikes, I thought came in and did a good job, we hit the ball, it was just that one inning. It gets us every time,” Thede said.

The Hawks get another shot at the Trojans when they travel to Iowa City on Friday to complete the home-and-home series.

“I feel like we are every bit right there with them,” Thede said. “They’ve got good tradition on their side and we have bad tradition. Somehow we have to break that. It is going to take some senior leadership to step up.”

Iowa City West raised its records to 15-9 overall and 8-7 in the conference.

IOWA CITY WEST (11)
Ewing, dh, 3 1 1 1, Siems, rf, 3 1 0 0, Harder, rf, 1 0 0 0, Rumpf, 1b, 4 2 2 1, Schreck, 3b/p, 3 0 0 0, Yoder, p, 1 0 0 0, Reiners, lf, 4 2 1 3, Cronk, ss, 4 1 1 1, Crimmins p/cf/ss 4 2 3 1, Baker, c, 3 1 1 1, Franz, 2b, 3 1 3 3, Grimsman, cf, 0 0 0 0, Aller, p, 0 0 0 0, Jones, lf, 0 0 0 0. Totals 33 11 12 11.

PRAIRIE (4)
Butz, 3b, 3 1 1 0, Utley, 1b, 3 1 1 1, B.Carlson, 2b, 2 0 1 0, Hammer, dh/p, 4 1 2 1, D.Carlson, p/c, 4 0 1 0, Pond, rf, 3 0 0 0, Gagliardi, ph, 1 0 0 0, Boots, cf/lf, 3 1 1 0, Meyer, c, 1 0 0 1, Jones, cf, 1 0 0 0, Mougin, ss, 2 0 1 0, Allard, lf, 0 0 0 0, Alberts, p, 0 0 0 0. Totals 27 4 8 3.

Iowa City West  612 100 1 - 11 12 1
Prairie               211 000 0 -  4   8 1

Crimmins, Aller (3) Yoder (5), Schreck (7) and Baker. D.Carlson, Hammer (4), Alberts (7) and Meyer, D.Carlson. W - Crimmins. L - D.Carlson. 2B - Utley, D.Carlson, Boots, Mougin, Rumpf, Reiners, Cronk, Baker, Franz. HR - Rumpf, Franz.