For the first time in school history, the Ankeny Christian Academy baseball team is ranked among the top 10 squads in Class 1A.
The Eagles are ranked eighth with a 17-0 record, including a 9-0 mark in the Bluegrass Conference.
“It’s great recognition for the boys for all their hard work,” said ACA coach Craig Dueker.
The Eagles remained unbeaten with a dramatic 7-6 victory over Moravia in eight innings on Tuesday at Urbandale. They overcame an early 6-0 deficit with two runs in the third inning and four more in the seventh, then got a walk-off hit from sophomore Eli Christensen in the eighth inning to end the game.
The only losses for Moravia (9-2) have been to ACA.
“I think we have a ton of talent, and the boys worked very hard in the offseason,” said Dueker, who earned his 100th career win on Friday. “It’s been awesome to see how much they’ve improved and come together. I wouldn’t say that I expected us to be (unbeaten), but I thought we had the capability of being really solid up and down the lineup.”
Senior Malachi Johnson has played a key role in the team’s success. He tossed a six-hitter on Tuesday, allowing just one earned run while racking up nine strikeouts.
Johnson is 6-0 on the mound with a 0.82 ERA.
“I’m very excited about the season we’re having,” said Johnson. “I didn’t know what to expect coming into the year. We lost a couple of pretty good seniors last year. This has surpassed my expectations by quite a bit.”
Johnson is also the state’s third-leading hitter. He is batting .653 with one home run, five triples, nine doubles and 14 RBIs.
“I just kind of go up there and have the same approach every at-bat,” Johnson said. “I try to put the bat on the ball and hit it hard. I’m just thankful for all the talent that God has given me, and I think I’ve gotten better and better every year, and all glory to Him.”
Before the season started, Dueker asked Johnson to fill another role for the Eagles.
“Malachi has been a five-year starter for us, and he’s been an all-conference and all-district performer for multiple years,” Dueker said. “But we asked him to move to catcher this year because we needed to solidify that spot. With Malachi’s pitching arm and his throwing, very few people are electing to run on him. And if they do, they’re probably realizing they shouldn’t have. He’s been a tremendous teammate and all-around ballplayer for us. Offensively, he’s the kind of guy that makes the engine go.”
Johnson said he has enjoyed moving behind the plate, even though it puts a lot of additional stress on his arm.
“We talked before the season about who we were going to put back there, and then kind of out of the blue Craig was like, ‘Do you want to catch? You want to try to turn into an all-state catcher?’ And I was like, ‘Sure, whatever the team needs, I’ll do.’ We tried it, and it’s working so far,” he said. “It is a little hard, but we work through it. I never tell Craig when my arm is sore. I just do whatever the team needs me to do.”
Christensen has been another standout. On Tuesday, he went 3-for-4 and drove in five runs, including a two-run homer that sparked the team’s rally.
Christensen is batting .488 with two home runs, six doubles and 23 RBIs. On the mound, he has compiled a 3-0 mark with a 0.00 ERA, allowing just four hits and two walks while recording 38 strikeouts in 18 1/3 innings.
“Eli has thrown extremely well,” Dueker said. “He’s another guy who worked very hard in the offseason on his body and also on his skill development. He’s picked up his velocity and has also done a better job with his off-speed pitches. He’s nursing a little bit of a sore arm right now, but he’ll be back on the hill relatively soon.”
As a team, the Eagles have posted four shutouts while recording a 1.13 ERA. Matthew Weishhons is 3-0 with a 0.45 ERA, and Tyler Mahoney is 3-0 with a 1.53 ERA.
“The pitchers are doing an outstanding job of just pumping the strike zone,” Dueker said. “And if we don’t get the strikeout, the batters are putting the ball in play and our defense has been outstanding.”
Dueker said the Eagles’ goals are simple. They want to win the conference title and make it to the state tournament.
“This team has such awesome culture,” he said. “They love being together, and God has given them some pretty unique gifts. They’re coming together, and I think we can make a pretty deep run. I don’t want to say it’s the state tournament or bust, but we’re going to be focused on going pretty deep (into the postseason).”
Johnson has confidence in his younger teammates.
“We’re actually a pretty young team–we have six underclassmen starting for us,” he said. “But state is definitely what we’ve got our sights set on. We haven’t done too well in the postseason in the previous few years–we’ve gotten upset a couple of times. So we want to try to get over that hump and go to the next level.”
