The weather dealt the 2025 Prescott baseball team a chilly sloshy early season. The figurative frost had not burned off by mid-April as Osceola and Somerset handed Jeff Ryan's squad two early-season conference losses. With a 2-2 conference record, a Middle Border championship did not appear to be in the cards for the Cardinals.        

Prescott has had a royal flush of conference titles in program history (25), including 12 during Ryan's 27-year career, but it has been eight years since the last Cardinal Middle Border baseball conference championship.

"I told the team when we were 2 and 2 that they were in control," said Ryan. "And they had the ability to run the table. I'm really, really proud of them."

Tuesday's rain last week meant double header showdowns across the area on Thursday. Altoona (8-4) started the afternoon one game back with the Cardinals perched atop the conference standings at 9-3. Prescott was hosting Ellsworth, and a split would give them at least a share of the title.

In the top of the second inning, two Cardinal errors and a single by Ellsworth's Parker Peterson led to the first Panther run. Ellsworth's Gavin Klos smacked a two-run double scoring Wyley Myers and Grayson Jensen. In the bottom half of the inning, Prescott junior Evan Kochendorfer's RBI single made the score 3-1 after two innings. Kochendorfer was 2 for 3 at the plate in the game.

"We've battled back in quite a few games this year," said Ryan, "and today they did it again."

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Brody Temmers and Max Monteith started things off for the Cardinals with a pair of singles. Cole Platson was plunked for a Middle Border Conference-leading seventh time on the season and loaded the bases. Barrett Temmers cleared the bases with a three-run double to center field and, two batters later, pitcher Dain Pechacek singled in Temmers to give Prescott the lead, 4-3.

Pechacek continued his dominating season on the mound with two strikeouts in the sixth inning and two more in the seventh. Pechacek fanned 11 Panthers at the plate and gave up just four hits for the come-from-behind 4-3 Prescott win. Pechacek improved to 7-1 on the season. He has a 0.43 ERA and an astounding 60 strikeouts in 48 innings.

Pechacek was 2 for 2 with an RBI and one run scored. Barrett Temmers also collected two hits.

With at least a share of the Middle Border Conference title, a win in game two would secure the outright championship.

Platson reached on an error in the top of the first and scored on Pechacek's single. That was almost enough for Platson on the mound as he took a no-hitter into the bottom of the fourth inning.

The Panthers' Derek Johnson reached on an error and Jack Stoltenburg singled him in to knot the score up at one apiece.

"The four-seam fastball was a little low, so I switched to the two-seamer outside," said the left-handed Platson. "My change-up was dropping and the curveball was curving."

Platson, a Dakota County Technical College-signee, was almost unhittable, allowing just two hits and striking out 10.

"Cole was really sharp today," said Ryan, "and when he gets ahead, he is very good."

Panther pitcher Jacob Kohn was equally sharp, allowing just two hits and one unearned run through four innings. Stoltenburg came on in relief in the fifth inning. He plunked Platson, his teighh hit-by-pitch of the season, Barrett Temmers proceeded to reach base on an error, but the two-out rally was squelched after a Pechacek pop-up to the end the top of the fifth.

In the top of the sixth, senior second baseman Aidan Dorau led off for Prescott. With the count 2-1, Dorau pounced on a Stoltenburg fastball and launched a towering shot over the leftfield fence for a solo homerun.

"It felt so good," said Dorau. "I was struggling at the plate all day, so to get over that hump with a hit like that was nice."

Dorau’s moonshot blast made the score 2-1 in favor of the Cardinals. It would prove to not only be the game-winning hit, but a conference championship-winning bomb for the Cardinals as well. 

"There are moments that you dream about when you're playing in the backyard with your buddies," said Ryan. "Aidan had that face-splitting smile when he came around third and so did everyone else. That'll be something he'll remember forever."

Dorau battled and beat Hodgkin Lymphoma cancer in 2017 as a 10-year-old. The round-tripper on Thursday was his first-career homerun.

"We've worked hard all year," said Dorau, "so it's good to see it pay off."

"There's a black fence here in the dugout we're not supposed to jump on," said Platson. "But I knew it was gone the second it left his (Dorau's) bat. I hope I don't get in trouble saying I jumped on the fence, but I was so fired up, I wasn't thinking."

Coach Ryan might go easy on Platson’s Spiderman-like net climbing habit. The silky smooth-throwing lefty is now 5-1 on the season with a 1.96 ERA. It was Ryan's 13th Middle Border Conference championship in his 27th season at the helm of Cardinal baseball. A week prior, an umpire had some good things to say about his team, making Coach Ryan prouder than any win, according to him.

"The ump said, 'they were the most-polite, professionally acting high school baseball team I've ever seen' and that makes me feel really good. That's what it's all about. These guys are an easy team to root for."

Prescott finished 11-3 in Middle Border Conference play, going 9-1 after the 2 and 2 start. The Cardinals are 19-4 overall and with Pechacek and Platson on the mound, they are looking to make some waves in the WIAA playoffs.

"We have so much confidence in Cole and Dain," said Dorau. "When those two guys are on the mound, we feel like we can win every time."