Joey Oakie’s dominance on the pitcher’s mound has been well documented.
But the Ankeny Centennial senior is a pretty good hitter, too.
Oakie went 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs to lead the second-ranked Jaguars to a 7-4 victory at Urbandale on Thursday. He now leads the team with two homers and 19 RBIs.
The win allowed Centennial to remain a half-game behind No. 4 Johnston in the CIML Conference race. The Jaguars are now 10-3 in the league and 17-4 overall, while Urbandale’s records dropped to 4-9 and 11-11.
It was the fourth straight triumph for Centennial, which also got a strong pitching performance from sophomore Will Morris. Morris (3-1) allowed just one earned run on five hits and had four strikeouts over the first 6 2/3 innings before Johnathan Carrasco took over to get the final out.
Carrasco scored a pair of runs for the Jaguars. He doubled to open the game and eventually came home on Oakie’s three-run homer.
Urbandale responded with three runs in the bottom of the first. All of them were unearned due to two Centennial errors.
Morris singled to ignite a three-run rally in the fourth. Isaac Bruhl hit a two-run single to break the 3-3 tie before Oakie drove in another run with an infield hit.
Leyton Kolln added an RBI double in the fifth to give the Jaguars an insurance run. His hit brought home Sean Stewart, who went 2-for-4 and scored a pair of runs.
Centennial will host a conference doubleheader against No. 10 Dowling Catholic (9-10) on Monday.
