Another large crowd showed up at Ankeny Centennial on Monday night to watch one of the nation’s top high school pitchers.
Centennial senior Joey Oakie showed flashes of his brilliance before a throng of MLB scouts, but Tanner Jackson and the Waukee Northwest baseball team stole the spotlight.
Jackson hit a solo homer off Oakie in the fourth inning, then later had an RBI double off reliever Elijah Starr in the eighth to give the ninth-ranked Wolves a 3-2 victory over No. 2 Centennial in a top-10 matchup.
“It was two ranked teams, and sometimes those games come out the way you want them to and sometimes they don’t,” said Centennial coach Mark Hey. “We’ll just regroup (Tuesday).”
Oakie allowed two earned runs on four hits over the first seven innings. He walked two and had 14 strikeouts.
That’s a tremendous stat line for most CIML Conference pitchers, but it was somewhat of a subpar outing by Oakie’s standards. He had allowed just two earned runs on five hits over his three previous starts–a span of 17 2/3 innings.
“Joey would probably say that he didn’t have his usual stuff tonight,” Hey said. “His velocity on his fastball was down a little bit, and his control wasn’t there. Sometimes you just have those games where you don’t feel quite right, but I was just so proud of Joey for the way he battled without his best stuff. That’s a sign of how good he really is.”
Jackson broke a scoreless tie with his one-out blast to left field in the top of the fourth. The Wolves have hit three home runs this season–all of them by Jackson.
Northwest starter Chuck Berdovich left the game with one out in the bottom of the fifth–even though he had yet to give up a run. He had seven strikeouts over the first 4 1/3 innings.
“I had a feeling they were going to throw two or three different kids at us,” Hey said. “(Berdovich) did a nice job against us.”
Chris Petersen entered the game and promptly threw a wild pitch, allowing courtesy runner Brayden Adams to advance to third. Adams had replaced Leyton Kolln, who opened the inning with an infield single.
Isaac Bruhl followed with a grounder to first, but Adams raced home and beat the throw to the plate for the tying run. After Kohen Bollwinkel hit into a fielder’s choice, Oakie smashed an RBI double to left-center to give the Jaguars a 2-1 lead.
A fired-up Oakie struck out the side in the top of the sixth, then pumped his fist as he headed back to the dugout.
“He kept them down pretty well, even though he didn’t have the usual break on his slider and the usual zip on his fastball,” Hey said.
Northwest tied the game in the seventh following a leadoff walk to Gus Ruggle. After Ruggle stole second, pinch-runner Andrew Eastman came home on a one-out single to right by Drew Fitzpatrick–who had earlier doubled.
Oakie again struck out the side to avoid any further damage. He then departed after throwing 107 pitches.
Starr (1-1) allowed a walk to Sam Johnson in the eighth. He eventually reached third, then came home on Jackson’s two-out double to left.
After Petersen quickly retired Centennial in order in the bottom of the inning, the Wolves celebrated on the field as if they had just won a postseason game. That’s how much the victory meant to them.
“It’s kind of their World Series game, isn’t it?” Hey asked. “But we have to get up for these games, too. I feel like we’re just not hitting the ball real well right now. We’ll get a little extra (batting practice Tuesday) and try to go get a win against Norwalk (7-9).”
The Jaguars dropped to 7-3 in the conference and 13-4 overall. Northwest raised its records to 7-5 and 13-8.
