It wasn’t as if there was a full moon Friday night.

In fact, the moon was but a sliver as the Prairie and Iowa City High baseball teams played for more than three hours in one of the wackiest games you’d ever see.

The second game of their Mississippi Valley Conference doubleheader had everything, in abundance: Passed balls and wild pitches, overthrown bases, a crucial balk, hit batters, lots or errors and hits galore.

Prairie finally won it, 11-10, after doing its best to give it away.

It followed the first game that was as clean, smoothly played and well-pitched as the nightcap was wildly chaotic.

The Little Hawks’ 4-1 victory in the opener, though, was somewhat tainted by a couple of controversial calls that Prairie Coach Matt Thede felt could have changed the outcome.

In all, though, the two contests played under the bright sun and then the fingernail moon on Prairie’s home diamond on Senior Night were literally like, well, night and day.

“The second one was a crazy one, no question about it,” said Thede.

Each team used five pitchers in the nightcap, with only moderate success.

Iowa City’s first four hitters rocked Hawk starting pitcher Nick Mougin for two singles and two doubles right off the bat to take a 3-0 lead. But Prairie bounced right back, also with a pair of doubles and a pair of singles, to tie it up in the bottom of the first.

That was a foretaste of what was to come.

Iowa City High (17-19, 13-13 MVC) knocked Mougin out with four more runs in the second, aided by two straight errors to open the inning. Drew Digman came in to stem the tide and held the Little Hawks for two innings.

Meanwhile, the Hawks pecked away and managed to manufacture four runs on five singles to knot the game at 7-7 after three innings.

Iowa City scored two more runs in the fourth with one hit. That’s all that was needed, however, since normally sure-handed Hawk first baseman Tyler Votroubek made two errors to go along with two passed balls, a wild pitch and a botched rundown that brought in a run.

“They were silly errors,” said Votroubek of his dropped throw and bobbling of a dribbler. “But I tried not to let it get me down. I tried to stay positive.”

He got his chance to make amends in the fifth inning when he came to bat with two outs and Ty Mougin on second. Dylan Becker had started the inning by getting hit. He went to third on Mougin’s double and raced home on a groundout to first.

With redemption on his mind, Votroubek laced a single to right to bring in the tying run. “It felt good to get that weight off my shoulders,” he said.

Hawk closer Spencer Dean, who hadn’t pitched for a month with an injured elbow, took the mound in the sixth. He walked a batter, who eventually scored when Votroubek flailed a wild throw over the third baseman’s head.

“Another mix-up,” he admitted.

But Prairie rallied yet again.

The Hawks tied the score at 10-10 when pinch-runner Nicholas Benson was awarded home on a balk by fifth Iowa City pitcher Josh Crosby. Tyler Butz singled home Becker from third to give Prairie the lead once more. It was his only hit of the night in eight at-bats.

“I felt like I was seeing the ball well all night and making contact,” Butz said. “And I finally got one to go through the infield.”

Although he hit one batter and walked another one, Dean was able to close out the seventh to preserve the hard-fought victory and get the win.

“It was an ugly game,” Thede acknowledged. “But we battled back and battled back.

“The guys kept getting knocked down, but they picked themselves up and kept swinging. We got some key hits when we needed them.”

The mild-mannered coach was not as pleased with the way the first game turned out. It was an error-free pitchers’ duel all the way between Prairie lefty Brennan Hammer and Iowa City High southpaw Mitch Wieland.

Iowa City scratched out a run in the second on two singles, but Prairie loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning. Becker hit a grounder that would have brought in a run, but he and Blake Stallman were both called out when it was ruled Stallman slid out of the basepath trying to break up a double play.

“Very questionable call,” Thede said calmly. “But it cost us the tying run."

Later, a Prairie runner was called out at first when, Thede said, he was clearly safe. “I’m not one to make excuses,” he said. “But I thought both calls were blatantly wrong.”

Still, his Hawks couldn’t do much damage at the plate.

With Iowa City leading 2-1, Prairie put runners on second and third with one out in the sixth. But hard-throwing righthander Crosby, who took the loss in the second game, came on in relief and snuffed out the rally.

The Little Hawks scored two in the seventh, and Crosby mopped up the win.

All in all, it was a night of contrasts.

Even with his fielding woes, Votroubek said he enjoyed it. “It’s always fun to play in those back and forth games,” he pointed out, “as long as you come out on top.”

The split left seventh-ranked Prairie at 16-8 in the Valley Division and 22-12 overall. The Hawks trail Linn-Mar and Dubuque Wahlert by one game in the Valley Division standings with two games left to play. Linn-Mar and Wahlert are both 17-7.

GAME 1

IOWA CITY HIGH (4): Wieland, p/2b, 3 0 1 0, Frakes, 2b/rf, 3 1 2 0, Mrstik, ss, 4 1 1 0, Crosby, lf/p, 2 1 1 0, Stika, c, 2 0 1 2, Simpson, 1b, 3 0 1 0, Kennedy, dh, 3 1 1 1, Haring, rf, 2 0 0 0, Goddard 1 0 0 0, Gevock, cf, 3 0 2 1. Totals 26 4 10 4.

PRAIRIE (1): T.Mougin, ss, 3 0 1 0, Hammer, p, 4 0 0 0, Butz, 3b, 4 0 0 0, Votroubek, 1b, 3 0 1 0, Beckman, dh, 3 0 2 0, Day, c, 0 0 0 0, Davison, lf, 2 0 2 0, Peters, rf, 2 0 0 0, Stallman, cf, 3 1 2 0, Becker, 2b, 2 0 1 0. Totals 26 1 9 0.

Iowa City High   010 100 2 - 4 10 0
Prairie               000 010 0 - 1 9 0

Wieland, Crosby (6) and Stika. Hammer and Day. W - Wieland. L - Hammer. S - Crosby. 2B - Stallman. SB - Frakes.

GAME 2

IOWA CITY HIGH (10): Wieland, 2b, 2 2 2 0, Frakes, rf, 5 2 1 1, Mrstik, ss, 5 2 2 3, Crosby, c/1b/lf/p, 4 1 3 3, Stika, p/lf/c, 3 2 1 0, Simpson, 1b/p, 4 0 0 1, Kenney, dh/lf, 4 0 0 0, Hasler, 3b, 3 1 0 0, Gevock, cf, 3 0 0 0. Totals 33 10 9 8.

PRAIRIE (11): T.Mougin, ss, 5 3 4 1, Hammer, rf, 3 0 1 2, Peters 1 0 0 0, Butz, 3b, 4 0 1 1, Votroubek, 1b, 5 2 3 2, Beckman, dh, 2 1 1 1, Davison, lf, 2 1 2 1, Stallman, cf, 4 1 1 1, Day, c, 4 1 2 0, Becker, 2b, 1 2 1 1. Totals 31 11 16 10.

Iowa City High   340 201 0 - 10 9 3
Prairie               313 022 x - 11 16 6

Stika, Forrester (3), Simpson (4), Goddard (5), Crosby (6) and Crosby, Stika. N.Mougin, Digman (2), Milks (4), Kilpatrick (5), Dean (6) and Day. W - Dean. L - Goddard. 2B - Crosby 2, Wieland, Beckman, Votroubek, T.Mougin. 3B - Mrstik. SB - Kennedy, T.Mougin.