The Ankeny baseball team could afford a loss on Wednesday.
That won’t be the case on Friday.
The Hawks closed out the regular season with a 3-2 loss at Dallas Center-Grimes in a non-conference game. Their overall record dropped to 22-13.
The Mustangs improved to 21-14 with their sixth straight victory.
“We need to play better,” said Ankeny coach Joe Balvanz, whose team will open substate play on Friday. “We let their best player (Clayton Campidilli) beat us. I think we trying to get something off the plate–it was a full count and two outs. But we left it over the plate, and he hit a laser beam out to center field.”
Dallas Center-Grimes took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning. The Mustangs then added two runs in the fifth.
Ankeny answered with a run in both the sixth and seventh innings, but it wasn’t enough.
“We can’t strike out 12 times in 21 outs and leave eight runners on base,” Balvanz said. “They switched pitchers every inning, so every time our guys went up there they saw a new pitcher. That makes it tough, but we need to do a better job of putting the ball in play and making the defense make plays.”
Tamden Webb-Tate went 2-for-4 and drove in both of the Hawks’ runs. He is now tied for second in Class 4A with 47 RBIs.
“Tamden played really well,” Balvanz said.
Thomas DeBrower went 2-for-4 and scored a run. Reid Johnson had a double.
Ben Sandvig went 1-for-1 with a walk and was hit by a pitch twice. He also scored a run.
Brock Adamson (2-4) took the loss. He allowed two earned runs and had four strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings of relief.
Adamson combined on a four-hitter with Alex Griess and Dylan Schlee.
“These games are tough when they don’t really matter, but you still want to be playing well,” Balvanz said.
Ankeny will host Des Moines East (17-23) in a Class 4A substate quarterfinal on Friday at 7 p.m. The Scarlets are on a four-game winning streak and have won seven of their last eight games.
“Our guys were in good spirits after the game,” Balvanz said. “They know we have a job to do on Friday, and I think we’ll be ready to start the postseason run.”
