Prairie Coach Matt Thede took his ballclub to the far right-field corner after their game Thursday night for a chat, but even from 200 feet away it was easy to hear the displeasure in his voice.

"I got a few things off my chest," he said on his way back to the dugout.

The ninth-ranked Hawks struggled for the second straight game and lost a clunker to No. 10 Pleasant Valley, 9-4, in a soggy non-conference affair at Prairie.

The setback came a day after the Hawks were throttled by No. 1 Kennedy, 9-0, in the championship game of the Metro Baseball Tournament.

Prairie committed four costly errors against Pleasant Valley, collected only six hits against a freshman pitcher and struck out 12 times. Against Kennedy, the Hawks managed only one hit, committed two pivotal errors and struck out 11 times.

"You can't do that against two quality teams," said Thede.

Prairie fashioned a 26-16 record last season and reached the Class 4A substate finals. Last year's edition got off to a slow start before catching fire, and now this year's club has gotten off to a fairly slow start as well.

"Last year it took us 23 games before we got it going," noted Thede. "Hopefully it will be a little sooner this year."

Thede is confident he'll have another good team, once his top players begin to play like top players should. "These guys, they're not going to go down without a fight, there's no question about it," he said.

Prairie is playing one of the toughest schedules in the state this week with five games in five nights, all against ranked opponents. The Hawks defeated Marion (No. 9 in 3A) and Xavier (No. 8 in 4A) on Monday and Tuesday, then lost to Kennedy (No. 1 in 4A) and Pleasant Valley (No. 10 in 4A) on Wednesday and Thursday. The opening week of the season ends Friday night at Solon (No. 8 in 3A).

"We schedule on purpose," said Thede. "We want to find out some things, we want to put some guys in situations.

"Five top-10 teams in the state, five nights in a row and we've got a chance to get above .500 tomorrow night. Hopefully we can rebound."

Pleasant Valley freshman Austin Suhr pitched six strong innings for the Spartans (3-1) with 10 strikeouts, featuring an 82-83 mph fastball. "He kind of stuck it to us a little bit," said Thede.

Brady Hanna pitched the seventh inning for Pleasant Valley and struck out two more batters, making 12 for the night.

Jason Velvick collected two of Prairie's six hits, including a triple. Brennan Hammer also hit a triple for the Hawks.

The game was delayed an hour at the beginning due to rain.

PLEASANT VALLEY (9)
Banks, 2b, 2 1 0 0, Blaske, ph, 0 0 0 0, Ennis, dh, 2 1 1 0, Fink, ph/dh, 2 1 2 0, Suhr, p, 0 0 0 0, Hanna, ph/p, 1 0 0 0, Addelia, ss, 4 1 3 1, Trewyn, 3b, 3 1 1 1, Kress, 1b, 3 1 2 4, Clark, cf, 2 0 0 0, O'Brien, lf, 1 0 0 0, Cobler, lf/cf, 2 1 0 0, Sheeder, c, 2 1 1 0, Brown, c, 2 0 0 0, Syverud, rf, 4 1 1 0. Totals 30 9 11 6.

PRAIRIE (4)
Velvick, cf, 2 1 2 1, Hammer, rf, 3 0 0 1, Carlson, 2b, 4 0 0 0, Butz, c/p, 4 1 1 0, Alberts, 3b, 2 0 0 0, Votroubek, 1b, 3 0 0 0, Peters, lf/p, 2 0 0 0, Pond, ph/c, 1 0 1 0, Davison, dh/lf, 3 1 1 0, Steffens, p, 0 0 0 0, Mougin, ss, 2 1 1 1. Totals 26 4 6 3.

Pleasant Valley   212 300 1 - 9 11 1
Prairie               011 100 1 - 4  6 4

Suhr, Hanna (7) and Sheeder, Brown (4). Steffens, Peters (4), Butz (7) and Butz, Pond (7). W - Suhr. L - Steffens. 2B - Addelia, Davison. 3B - Sheeder, Velvick, Mougin. SB - Clark, Cobler.