The Ankeny baseball team got a quality start from senior righthander Jack Clevidence, but it wasn’t enough to produce a victory on Monday at Valley.
After the Hawks took a 2-0 lead in the third inning, Valley answered with three runs in the fourth and then held on for a 3-2 win to snap a six-game losing streak. The Tigers improved to 2-7 in the CIML Conference and 5-11 overall, while Ankeny’s records dropped to 2-9 and 7-14.
“I don’t like losing, but it wasn’t a poorly played game,” said Ankeny coach Joe Balvanz. “We looked athletic on defense. We made a couple errors in that inning where they scored those three runs, and that hurt us. But we just have to figure out a way to score more than two runs when we get eight hits.”
Clevidence (0-3) allowed two earned runs on three hits and had three strikeouts. He needed just 63 pitches to get through six innings.
“Jack was outstanding,” Balvanz said. “He did a really nice job of working ahead in the count and going deep into the game and trusting all of his stuff in any count. That was certainly a bright spot for us.”
Clevidence also went 3-for-3 at the plate with a triple and one RBI. He was intentionally walked in the seventh inning with the game on the line.
“We had a chance there,” Balvanz said. “We just didn’t get the job done, but that’s baseball.”
Kinnick Vos went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored for the Hawks. Samuel Sandvig went 2-for-3 and stole a base.
Colton Roemmich doubled and drove in two runs for the Tigers. He scored the go-ahead run on a hit by Charlie Krueger.
Valley starter Jeff Rose tossed 6 2/3 innings to earn the win. He is the son of Valley Activities Director and former Ankeny baseball coach Brad Rose.
Rose scattered eight hits and had five strikeouts before reaching his pitch limit. Ellis Colon then took over and recorded the final out for the Tigers.
“He pitched pretty well,” Balvanz said of Rose. “He got stronger and stronger as the game went on. He was efficient and around the zone. Our guys did a good job of putting the ball in play, but we’ve just got to string some hits together.”
Ankeny will travel to Dowling Catholic on Wednesday for a conference doubleheader against the No. 10 Maroons (9-7).
