EDDYVILLE — It’s not often Calvin Mathews has been the first one to blink on the mound. For the most part this season, Mathews has either pitched with the lead or pitched with the game scoreless. Rarely is it Mathews who gives up the first run.

Someone forgot to tell Mid-Prairie that.

The first pitches of Mathews’s final postseason in a Davis County uniform didn’t start in commanding fashion, as lead-off hitter Jason Schrock’s lead-off triple turned into an opening-inning run when Seth Eash followed with an RBI single.

Some pitchers might be rattled by such an unusual start. Mathews, however, took it all in stride.

“It’s probably the third or fourth time I’ve been behind on the scoreboard,” Mathews said. “It really isn’t something I was worried about.”

Fortunately for Mathews and defending state champion Mustangs, Tuesday’s Class 2A District 10 semifinal wasn’t as much about how one team started. It was more about how the other one finished.

The defending Class 2A state champions needed a few innings to get back to the dominant team that rolled to 38-1 record this season. A fielding error on an RBI hit by Clint Foster helped push across a go-ahead run in the fourth before Mathews and Foster helped break things open with a pair of fifth-inning home runs as the Mustangs used an eight-run frame to pull away for a 12-1 Class 2A, District 10 win over Mid-Prairie at Eddyville’s Rocket Field.

“I could see early on in the game that our guys weren’t in panic mode. We’ve been behind before this season and have been able to fight back,” Mustang head coach Todd White said. “We’re trying to get our bats going from the top of the order to the bottom of the order. The bottom part of our lineup really helped get us going and it just snowballed from there.”

The win sends the top-ranked Mustangs into a more familiar match-up Saturday in the District 10 finals. Davis County (39-1) will face South Central Conference rival Eddyville-Blakesburg for fifth time after the Rockets upset the district’s other rated squad, No. 6 Van Buren, in Tuesday’s late game.

Familiarity is something Davis County did not have with their opening postseason opponent. In fact, what Mathews tried to find out about the Golden Hawks proved to be costly for the Mustang ace when he took the mound in the opening inning.

“To be honest, I didn’t figure they’d be that good a hitting of a team. I looked them up on Quikstats and saw they only had one batter hitting over .400. The rest were hitting in the .200’s, so I really wasn’t mixing (the pitches) up the best that I could.

“After that first inning, I talked with (catcher) Calvin (Utt). We agreed I had to start mixing it up a lot more because they’re a better team at the plate than we thought.”

It didn’t take long for Mathews to take back control on the mound, striking out five of the next six batters he faced after giving up the opening run. Mathews added two more strikeouts in the third and answered the Mustangs’ two-run fourth-inning rally by striking out the side in fourth.

“We’ve been here before and the kids just had to keep chipping away,” White said. “Having Calvin settle in is key. If he’s nervous, I’m sure the other guys are going to be nervous. Fortunately, if he’s ever nervous he doesn’t show it.”

Davis County’s offensive spark came from a player looking for a spark entering postseason play. Clint Foster, who struggled at the plate to close the regular season, broke out in a big way in the postseason opener with a team-leading three hits and four RBI including the game-tying single that also scored Connor Young with the Mustangs’ go-ahead run in the fourth.

Foster’s biggest hit came an inning later. After Calvin Mathews drove two in with his 11th home run, Foster followed suit by following Mathews’s drive to left with a three-run homer of his own to put Davis County up, 7-1.

“I’ve been in such a slump for the past two weeks. It felt great to finally get my bat going again,” Foster said after hitting his sixth homer of the season.

Jonas Coblentz led Mid-Prairie at the plate, going 2-for-2 against Mathews. The Golden Hawks season ends at 21-17 with 15 wins in their final 21 games.

No. 1 Davis County 12, Mid-Prairie 1

D.C.      000   280    2    —    12    14   1         

M-P      100    000   0    —      1      5    3

Davis County battery — Calvin Mathews (W, 11-0) (6IP, 5H, R, ER, 11K) and Josh Martsching (IP, K), Calvin Utt catching.

2B — Josey Garmon, Martsching, Austin Roberts.

HR — Clint Foster (6), Mathews (11).

Hits — Foster 3-4, Mathews 2-4, Utt 2-4, Wyatt Garmon 1-1, Connor Young 1-2, Jacob Davidson 1-3, J. Garmon 1-4, Park Mikels 1-4, Roberts 1-4, Martsching 1-5.

RBI — Foster 4, Davidson 2, Mathews 2, W. Garmon, Martsching.

Runs — Davidson 2, J. Gamon 2, Young 2, Tucker Armstrong, Foster, Martsching, Mathews, Mikels, Roberts.

Mid-Prairie battery — Nick Stimson (L, 2-4) (3IP, 4H, 2R, ER, 3K, 2BB), Jonas Coblentz (1 1/3IP, H, 2R, 2ER, 3K, BB) and Kyle Mullet (2 2/3IP 9H, 8R, 8ER, 2K, 2BB, HBP), Seth Eash catching.

3B — Jason Schrock.

Hits — Coblentz 2-2, Eash 1-3, Schrock 1-3, Dylan Wertz 1-3.

RBI — Eash.

Runs — Schrock.