Pity the Marion softball girls.

They’re on a seven-game losing streak. One of their three pitchers is done for the season and another is suffering from a painful stress fracture.

And in their final regular-season game Tuesday night, they had a makeup date with the suddenly slugging Prairie Hawks from the powerful Mississippi Valley Conference.

Coming into the contest on Prairie's field, their records were reversed: Prairie 24-12, Marion 12-24.

The night before, Prairie shellacked Dubuque Hempstead, 13-1 and 13-2, in games cut short by the mercy rule.

And before the Marion varsity girls could take the field Tuesday, they watched their junior varsity team get shell-shocked in three innings.

All the signs were there for another blowout.

The Indians did make a game of it, for one inning anyway, until Prairie’s big bats unloaded for 10 runs in the next three innings.

But give the Marion girls credit. With their backs against the wall, they rallied to score twice in the fifth inning and forced the Hawks to take another at-bat in order to win, 12-2.

“I was proud that the girls battled back to get some runs across,” said veteran Marion Coach Kim Knapp. “They didn’t fold.

“But what can you say? Prairie is a real good hitting ballclub. They hit the ball hard, and they run the bases to score runs.”

Marion junior pitcher Haley Vanourney, who has been hampered by a sore foot, did hold the Hawks to one hit by Gabi Carter in the first inning.

And a run was prevented when freshman left fielder Bayley Fuller threw out Brittney Lash trying to score from second.

Prairie designated hitter Natalie Rumer, however, opened the second inning with a booming home run to deep left-center, her fourth dinger of the season but her first one at home.

“We probably have the biggest field in the conference,” said the junior slugger, “so it’s hard to pop one out of here. I think it kind of picked up everyone else tonight.”

When Malia Gudenkauf followed with a sharp single, Knapp pulled Vanourney and replaced her with freshman Bre Smith.

“Haley has a stress fracture, and my freshman Ashley Lappe is lost because of some health issues,” the coach explained. “I was hoping Bre would give them some different looks and change speeds.”

Smith did get Marion out of the inning trailing only 3-0, but the Hawks uncorked six runs off her in the third inning on four hits. With nobody out, Vanourney came back to the mound and forced the next three hitters into groundouts.

“She did a nice job,” Knapp said.

Gudenkauf scored one of the six runs following a walk. With a fourth inning double to go along with an earlier single, she scored all three times she went to bat.

“I was coming off a little bit of a slump,” said the junior first baseman. “Tonight, I just focused on pitches that were in my zone, even taking strikes if they weren’t in my zone.”

Prairie ace pitcher Katie Kuch, meanwhile, was in her zone for all four innings she was on the mound. She allowed just one harmless single, walked three and struck out four.

“I pitched all seven innings against Hempstead (Monday), and it was so hot tonight that it was hard to keep my hands dry,” said Kuch, a senior who is now 19-7 for the season. “But I felt good. I can always count on our defense, and our bats have really come alive in the last three games.”

The Indians scored their two runs in the fifth inning off reliever Sara Stevenson. Back-to-back singles by Vanourney (who leads the Indians with a .405 average) and senior Beth Knapp (second at .389) brought home freshman Haley Dullea and senior Lauren Rausch.

In the bottom of the inning, though, the Hawks upped the lead to 10 when sophomore Mallory Jones raced home on a suicide squeeze bunt by freshman Kristin Wahlert and Lash scored on a passed ball.

Marion opens 4A regional play Thursday at Vinton-Shellsburg.

The Hawks, who finished second in the Valley division of the MVC to Xavier, close their regular season Wednesday with a home game against Washington (Iowa) and open regional play Saturday by hosting Linn-Mar.

“We’re playing real well right now,” said Prairie Coach Joe Yegge. “Katie is throwing strikes and pitching great.

“We were in a funk for awhile and not scoring many runs. But we’re being more selective with our pitches and playing well offensively.

“Everybody’s confident and feeling good.”