The Ankeny softball team outscored its opponents by a 35-5 margin while winning four games in the John Stevens Classic on Friday and Saturday at Creston.
The fourth-ranked Hawkettes posted a 10-0 victory over Clarinda in six innings on Saturday before closing out the tournament with a 5-3 win over Winterset, the No. 8 team in Class 4A.
“We were really consistent. Our pitching and catching were really good,” said Ankeny coach Dave Bingham, whose team is now 13-4 on the season. “It’s tough when you have to play games back-to-back, and we also had to switch fields on Saturday. But we just stayed consistent. The defense was solid, and we’re scoring some runs. In this day and age, you never know how many (runs) will be enough. But we were real happy with the four wins.”
Junior Abby Rusher (10-2) was the winning pitcher in all four games. Against Winterset (11-6), she allowed one earned run on three hits over the first 5 1/3 innings while recording five strikeouts.
Cassie Johnson homered and drove in three runs. It was her eighth home run of the season, which is tied for third in the entire state.
Kennedy Palmer tripled and knocked in Ankeny’s other two runs. Larissa Miller went 2-for-3, while Avery Nelson doubled and scored a run.
Earlier, the Hawkettes pounded out 11 hits in the win over Clarinda (10-8). Rusher went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and also pitched two hitless innings with four strikeouts.
Rusher is now batting .425 on the season, which ranks third on the team.
“Abby’s made a lot of good adjustments at the plate,” Bingham said. “She’s really come along as a batter.”
Palmer went 2-for-3 and drove in two runs. Johnson went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and one RBI, while Rylee Riesberg knocked in two runs.
Aubrey Lensmeyer and Reagan Enright each added a double.
On Friday, the Hawkettes opened the tournament with an 11-0 victory over Atlantic (8-6) in six innings. Rusher and Kendra Winfrey combined on a no-hitter with 13 strikeouts.
Rusher had 10 strikeouts over the first five innings. Winfrey then fanned all three batters that she faced in the sixth.
“I don’t think Abby was super excited about me taking her out of the game,” Bingham said. “She had thrown so well and had not thrown very many pitches that we wanted to bring her back for the next game. She threw as well as she has thrown so we wanted to come back to her.”
Johnson went 3-for-4 with a home run, a double and four RBIs. Lensmeyer homered, her second of the season, and drove in two runs.
Katie Kirschman went 3-for-3 with a solo homer.
“That was really cool. Katie has never hit a home run anytime in her life,” Bingham said. “She’s doing a lot of the little things well. She’s a utility player and is basically our Pete Rose. She’s a grinder. It was really fun to see her get ahold of one.”
Rusher went 2-for-4 and drove in three runs. Miller also went 2-for-4 and scored a pair of runs, and Kendra Lewis had a double.
Ankeny then posted a 9-2 win over Creston (6-6). Rusher earned another win with two hitless innings of relief and also went 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs.
Johnson went 2-for-3, while Miller and Lewis each went 2-for-4. Lewis scored three runs and knocked in another.
Lensmeyer and Riesberg each scored a run and drove in another. Kirschman and Nelson each had an RBI.
The Hawkettes will play a CIML Conference doubleheader at No. 2 Valley (11-4) on Monday.
