It was a tale of two completely different games.
The second-ranked Ankeny Centennial baseball team rolled to a 10-0 victory over visiting Dowling Catholic in five innings before the Maroons salvaged a split of Monday’s doubleheader with a 10-2 win in the nightcap.
“They were almost polar opposites of each other, but those games like we had in the second game happen sometimes in baseball,” said Centennial coach Mark Hey. “We just didn’t have it the first couple of innings.”
In the opener, Centennial’s Joey Oakie tossed a two-hitter and had 10 strikeouts for his second shutout against the Maroons. He threw a three-hitter with 16 strikeouts in a 4-0 triumph at Dowling on May 28.
Oakie (3-1) lowered his ERA to 0.94 on the season. He has now racked up 62 strikeouts in just 29 2/3 innings.
“He’s something special. He’s really fun to watch,” Hey said of Oakie, who allowed only a pair of singles by Matthew Hanten and Trever Baumler. “I hope everyone in Ankeny has had a chance to watch him and remembers him in the future. He’s a special guy, and not just as a baseball player but as a person. It’s great to see people like him have the success that he’s having.”
Emerson Alberhasky hit a two-run double in the fifth inning. Sean Stewart later had a two-run double to end the game.
Kohen Bollwinkel and Jackson Reed each had an RBI single in the Jaguars’ four-run first inning. An errant pickoff attempt allowed two more runs to score in the third.
Dowling jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning of the second game and cruised to the victory, snapping its four-game losing skid and Centennial’s five-game winning streak. Tripp Rawlings (3-1) took the loss, allowing four earned runs on four hits over the first two innings.
Hey used five more pitchers in the loss.
“We’ve got a really busy week so that was part of the reason that we rolled a lot of pitchers out there tonight,” Hey said. “We want to be able to use them later in the week.”
Max Shelton went 2-for-3 with three RBIs for the Maroons. Dylan Webb went 2-for-4 and drove in two runs, while Baumler went 2-for-4 with a double and scored twice.
“They got the hits when they needed to, and we left a lot of runners in scoring position,” Hey said. “But I thought our guys did a great job of battling back. We outhit them actually, which is hard to do in a 10-2 loss. Our guys never quit and battled hard for all seven innings. I’m happy with that, but obviously the result wasn’t what we wanted.”
Isaac Bruhl went 2-for-4 and drove in a run for the Jaguars. Bollwinkel also went 2-for-4, and Alberhasky had an RBI.
Despite the loss, Centennial remained a half-game behind No. 4 Johnston in the CIML Conference race. The Dragons also split a twinbill against Ankeny.
The Jaguars are now 11-4 in the league and 18-5 overall. Dowling’s records are 6-9 and 10-11.
Centennial will host a conference game against Valley (7-14) on Wednesday. The two teams split a doubleheader on May 29.
