The Ankeny baseball team rallied for a 10-8 victory over Davenport North before dropping a 4-2 decision to North Polk in the Tim Heggen Invitational on Saturday.
The Hawks used a seven-run fifth inning to erase a 5-3 deficit against Davenport North (4-2). The Wildcats had taken the lead with a five-run fourth.
“We responded to their big inning with a 7 spot,” said Ankeny coach Joe Balvanz. “The team did a nice job of hitting in situational spots.”
Blake Morgan and Carson Riggs each went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs. Jack Clevidence and Karsten Bernholtz each went 2-for-4 and drove in a run.
Evan Irlmeier and Henry Ha each added an RBI for Ankeny, which overcame a three-run homer by North’s Grant Wiese. Brandon Bea also had a big game for the Wildcats, going 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and two RBIs.
Nick Meyer (1-0) earned the victory in relief. He allowed two earned runs on three hits over 2 1/3 innings.
“Travis Gerstel started and did a great job,” Balvanz said. “It was his third time out this week, and he got us through four (innings) and started to wear down a little bit. I thought Meyer came in and battled. It wasn’t the prettiest of ball games, but we were able to come out on top.”
After pounding out 10 hits against four North pitchers, the Hawks were held hitless in the loss to North Polk (5-2), the No. 2 team in Class 3A. Reece Wrage had six strikeouts over the first 6 2/3 innings before lefthander Drew Owen came in and threw one pitch to get the final out.
Both of Ankeny’s runs came in the third inning and were unearned. Irlmeier had an RBI for the Hawks.
“Wrage one-hit us in the Heggen last year. He’s pretty tough–he’s a bulldog,” said Balvanz, whose team is now 3-6 on the season. “That young man was 0-2, 1-2 to probably 95 percent of the hitters. He didn’t strike out a lot of guys, but just induced soft contact on nearly every at-bat. He had great stuff. He was up and down, in and out.”
Wrage also went 3-for-4 at the plate. Owen went 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.
Zach Halverson (0-2) took the loss. He allowed three earned runs on seven hits over 3 2/3 innings.
The Hawks will play a non-conference doubleheader on Wednesday at Ames (2-7).
