When the Ankeny baseball team plays at Ankeny Centennial on Wednesday night, it will be the final meeting between the two squads unless they would happen to meet at the Class 4A state tournament next month.
The top-ranked Jaguars and No. 10 Hawks were placed in different substate brackets on Wednesday by the Iowa High School Athletic Association. Centennial (26-4) is the No. 1 seed in Substate 1, while Ankeny (17-16) is the No. 2 seed in Substate 7.
The Jaguars will host sixth-seeded Des Moines North (1-24) in a substate quarterfinal on Friday, July 7 at 7 p.m. The Polar Bears defeated Marshalltown, 10-9, in the second game of a doubleheader on Tuesday to snap a 103-game losing streak that dated back to June 24, 2020.
Second-seeded Ames (24-12) will host fifth-seeded Waterloo East (17-16) and third-seeded Des Moines Roosevelt (22-14) will host fourth-seeded Fort Dodge (18-15) in the other Substate 1 quarterfinals. The winners of those two games would meet in a semifinal on Monday, July 10 for the right to play Centennial in the substate final on Wednesday, July 12, assuming the Jaguars defeat North.
The Hawks will host fifth-seeded Norwalk (8-19) in a substate quarterfinal on July 7 at 7 p.m. No. 7 Dowling Catholic (20-10) is the top seed and will host sixth-seeded Sioux City West (5-25), while third-seeded Waukee (16-17) will host fourth-seeded Ottumwa (23-10) in the other Substate 7 quarterfinals.
If Ankeny wins, the Hawks would host either Waukee or Ottumwa in a semifinal on July 10 at 7 p.m., assuming that the Maroons defeat Sioux City West. The substate final will be played on July 12.
