Even though Brody Brecht didn’t take the mound on Monday night, the Ankeny baseball team still had more than enough talented arms to wrap up the CIML Iowa Conference championship.
Weston Fulk tossed a one-hitter and had 11 strikeouts as the third-ranked Hawks rolled to a 10-0 victory over visiting Ankeny Centennial in six innings in the first game of a doubleheader. Will Johnson and Dylan Schlee then combined on a five-hitter as Ankeny posted a 4-1 win in the nightcap.
“For the seniors, this is probably the last time we’ll play Centennial,” said Fulk. “So we wanted to make it a good one.”
Ankeny improved to 16-0 in the conference and 21-6 overall with its second sweep over Centennial. The Jaguars’ records dropped to 9-7 and 15-15.
The Hawks claimed their first league title since 2013, when they captured the CIC Eastern Division crown under former coach Mark Hey, who is now the coach at Centennial.
“That’s been a goal of ours since the season started,” said Ankeny senior Kade Somers, who went 4-for-6 and had four RBIs in the twinbill. “That and getting to the state championship game again–those are the two biggest goals of the season. It feels really good to take care of that tonight.”
Brecht went 2-for-4 with a double and knocked in two runs in the second game. He was originally slated to pitch that game, but his start was pushed back to Wednesday.
“My adviser didn’t want me throwing on short rest,” said Brecht, who is expected to be selected in the first few rounds of next month’s MLB amateur draft. “So I’ll be pitching at Marshalltown.”
However, Brecht contributed plenty with his bat. In the opener, he doubled off Joey Oakie (1-2) with one out in the first inning before Fulk blasted the next pitch over the fence for a two-run homer.
It was his eighth home run of the season, tying him for the lead in Class 4A.
“Oakie’s a great pitcher, but I saw to Jase (Bauer) and Brody he threw a first-pitch fastball,” Fulk said. “I got a little bit of it, and it went.”
Somers hit a two-run single in the fourth to extend the lead to 4-0. The margin grew to 8-0 in the fifth, when Tamden Webb-Tate hit a two-run single and Carter Smith followed with an RBI double.
The Hawks pounded out 14 hits.
“We all brought the bats today,” said Brecht, who was named the Gatorade Iowa Player of the Year on Tuesday.
Somers and Ryan Crandall each had a double among their three hits and drove in two runs. Fulk went 2-for-3, Brecht went 2-for-4, and Bauer added a double.
On the mound, Fulk overcame some early bouts of wildness to raise his record to 4-2. He walked four batters and hit another one–all in the first three innings–before cruising the rest of the way, giving up a lone hit in the fifth inning.
“Early in the count I was a little lazy with my fastball. I missed up and away,” Fulk said. “But Carter made a great double play (at second base) to help me out in my pitch count. I feel like I worked a lot more pitching to contact and that forced me to strike out kids as well.”
Fulk struck out the side in the fourth inning, getting three consecutive called third strikes.
“(Centennial) had some opportunities to get some things going, but we made some plays defensively and our pitching was outstanding all night long,” said Ankeny coach Joe Balvanz. “It was two good wins.”
In the nightcap, the Jaguars took a 1-0 lead when Damin Churchman scored on an infield single by Easton Miller in the first inning. But Johnson (4-1) avoided further damage when Cael Boyd made a diving catch in right field that he turned into an inning-ending double play.
“I really thought our athleticism showed defensively tonight,” Balvanz said. “The play that Bauer made–I don’t know if there’s another shortstop in the state that makes that play. And Boyd used his athleticism to catch that ball in front of him and then doubled them up.”
Bauer tripled off the fence in the bottom of the inning. He then scored on a single by Brecht to tie the game.
Somers later hit a two-run double off Kyle Miller to put the Hawks ahead for good.
“We hadn’t seen him yet, and he brought some stuff,” Somers said of Miller. “We didn’t hit the ball the way we wanted to and didn’t score as many runs. He’s really solid on the mound.”
After Brecht hit an RBI double in the second inning, Miller (4-2) settled down and shut Ankeny out the rest of the way. He scattered nine hits and had four strikeouts.
“I was pretty happy with how I threw,” Miller said. “I had a rough couple of innings and then I got the hang of it. You really have to work your spots against their lineup, and you can’t really give up a pitch. I just tried to keep it low and outside.”
Crandall and Smith each went 2-for-3 and scored a run. Crandall had five hits on the night and is now batting .444.
“It feels good (to win the conference),” Brecht said. “I don’t think we’ve won it since the split. That was definitely one of our goals, but we’ve got some bigger ones in mind.”
Before they begin their quest for the Class 4A state title, the Hawks will try to complete their conference schedule with a perfect record. They’ll play a doubleheader at Marshalltown on Wednesday before hosting Ames in their finale on July 6.
“Why not now, right?” Somers said. “We’ve just got to try to keep it rolling and see how far we can take it.”
The Jaguars finished the doubleheader without their head coach. Hey was ejected earlier for disputing a close call at first base.
“Mark’s a good friend of mine, and I have a great deal of respect for him,” Balvanz said. “He’s a pretty level-headed guy, and I don’t think he said a whole lot. If he was upset, he probably had a pretty good reason to be.
“That group that we played tonight is going to be a tough out come substate time. I know they’re young–but they’re going to be tough. They battled all night and really competed. I was really impressed with them,” he added.
Centennial will host a twinbill against Ames on Wednesday.
“We have confidence, even though we got the two losses tonight,” Miller said. “We feel like we can take on anybody right now.”
