The Ankeny Centennial baseball team was on the verge of falling into second place in the CIML Conference.
Down to their final out in the second game of a doubleheader at third-ranked Johnston, the No. 1 Jaguars rallied for five runs in the seventh inning and salvaged a split of Monday’s twinbill with a dramatic 8-7 victory. They bounced back after dropping a 2-1 decision in the opener.
“These guys have an awful lot of character and an awful lot of heart and grit,” said Centennial coach Mark Hey. “We really haven’t been in that situation a whole lot this year, but they just grinded it out.”
Trailing 5-3, winning pitcher Emerson Alberhasky (5-0) drew a two-out walk to ignite the Jaguars’ rally. After Lucas Bruhl was hit by a pitch, both runners advanced on a wild pitch before Cole Grider walked to load the bases.
Isaac Bruhl was hit by another pitch to force in a run, keeping the rally going.
“We weren’t crowding the plate trying to get hit or anything,” Hey said. “I think (Johnston) just had a little bit of control problems, but credit to our guys for hanging in there because we needed some base runners at that point.”
Easton Miller greeted Will Nuss, Johnston’s fifth pitcher, with an infield single that tied the score. Nick Severson followed with a three-run double to make it 8-5.
“That comeback was what we needed,” said Severson. “Hats off to Johnston–they controlled the majority of both of those games, and they swung it very well. Both games we just kept battling and never felt like the game was over. Our team just put their foot down, and nobody wanted to make that last out. We just battled.”
After Johnston’s Tyne Weeden hit a one-out home run in the bottom of the seventh, Hey brought in reliever Easton Pratt to close out the game. Pratt, making his first relief appearance of the season, gave up another run before getting a fly ball to end the game–leaving the tying run stranded at second.
“It was a good opportunity for us to bring (Pratt) out of the bullpen,” Hey said. “That’s something that we may have to do during the postseason, so that worked out well.”
Severson went 2-for-3 in the win, while Grider drove in two runs and Sean Stewart also had an RBI. Damin Churchman went 2-for-5 with a double, and Miller also went 2-for-5.
Adam Kayko went 3-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs for the Dragons.
Alberhasky allowed five earned runs on nine hits over the first 6 1/3 innings. He walked none and had three strikeouts.
The split allowed Centennial to remain in sole possession of first place in the conference. The Jaguars are now 17-3 in the league and 26-3 overall, while Johnston’s records are 17-5 and 28-8.
“Winning conference isn’t what we’re all about, because hopefully we have bigger plans than that,” Hey said. “But it certainly helps when you look at the conference race that we were able to come away with a split when it really looked improbable for most of that second game actually.”
Centennial has four conference games remaining, beginning with Wednesday’s contest at home against No. 10 Ankeny. The Jaguars will play a doubleheader at No. 5 Southeast Polk on Thursday before closing out the league schedule on Monday at Waukee Northwest.
Johnston has just two games remaining–at home against Waukee on Wednesday and at Southeast Polk on Monday. The Jaguars’ magic number to clinch at least a tie for the title is two.
“We needed that second game to help us in conference, so that was huge,” Severson said.
In the first game, the Dragons avenged a 12-3 loss to Centennial ace Joey Oakie on June 5 while snapping the Jaguars’ five-game winning streak. Oakie (6-1) suffered his first loss, allowing two earned runs on five hits over the first 5 2/3 innings.
Oakie gave up four walks, hit three batters and struck out seven. He was replaced by Ross Crawford after reaching his 110-pitch limit.
Johnston took a 1-0 lead in the third inning. Blake Lundholm was hit by a pitch with one out, advanced to second with two outs on a wild pitch, and then came home on a single by Carter Bryan.
In the fourth, the Dragons scored what proved to be the winning run. Sam Hesselman led off with an infield single and raced home on Nuss’ second hit of the game–a double down the left-field line.
Centennial, meanwhile, was held hitless through the first six innings by Caden Wilson, who also racked up nine strikeouts. The Jaguars put runners at second and third in the sixth inning before Wilson fanned a pair of batters to get out of the jam.
“He was spotting his pitches very well,” Hey said of Wilson. “Tip your hat to those guys. He just mixed his pitches well and kind of kept us off-balance. There were times we looked a little overmatched with his fastball.”
Hesselman relieved in the seventh and got two quick outs before hitting Isaac Bruhl and Miller with a pair of pitches. Severson followed with an RBI single for the Jaguars’ only hit of the game.
“Nick stays back on the ball so well and has such a great mindset at the plate every time,” Hey said. “He’s really fun to watch.”
Churchman then grounded into a force play to end it.
“We had a couple days off over the weekend and came in to that first game pretty fresh, and we just tried to do too much but that happens,” Severson said. “(Wilson) threw well and kept us on our toes, but even though we only had one hit we felt good. I don’t think anyone would say that was a terrible game.
“It helped us want that second game even more,” he added.
Centennial will host a non-conference game against No. 8 Dallas Center-Grimes (22-6) on Tuesday.
