The Southeast Polk baseball team overcame an early 3-0 deficit to beat visiting Ankeny Centennial, 4-3, in a CIML Conference game on Thursday.
The Rams avenged a doubleheader sweep on June 6 and helped fifth-ranked Johnston move closer to the conference title. No. 4 Centennial dropped to 12-7 in the league and 22-9 overall, while Southeast Polk raised its records to 9-12 and 19-13.
The magic number for the Dragons (16-5) to clinch the outright conference championship was reduced to two.
“Winning a conference title is always nice because it means you’re winning a lot of games, but it’s more important what you do in the postseason,” said Centennial coach Mark Hey. “And we met with our pitching staff today. We’re getting them lined up for the postseason, and it really doesn’t matter who we’re playing in the next several games–it matters which day we are playing. We just want to get our pitchers in the right spots.”
After Centennial scored three runs in the first inning, the Rams gradually rallied against Will Morris (4-2). They scored a run in the second, fourth and fifth innings to tie it up, then later walked off with the win when Connor Duong was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and no outs in the seventh.
“We let them hang around and chip away, and they were able to tie it up,” Hey said. “And when you’re the visiting team, you don’t have a chance to rally when they score in the bottom of the seventh.”
Jackson Reed went 2-for-3 with two doubles and an RBI for the Jaguars. Preston Glatt also doubled and drove in a run, and Joey Oakie had the team’s other RBI.
Centennial had four doubles among its seven hits. Leyton Kolln had the other double.
“I was really happy with how we started,” Hey said. “We had a good practice in the morning, and we came out and swung the bats really well. But Southeast Polk had a good pitcher. We hit the ball well and on the line in that first inning, but then the bats kind of went silent.”
Southeast Polk’s Cael Julander allowed three earned runs on six hits and had six strikeouts over the first six innings. Brett Nicodemus then tossed a scoreless inning of relief to earn the victory.
Duong doubled and knocked in two runs for the Rams. Kaden Hills also doubled and had an RBI.
Morris allowed three earned runs on five hits. He walked two and had three strikeouts.
The Jaguars will play a conference doubleheader on Monday at No. 9 Waukee Northwest (21-12). The Wolves posted a 3-2 victory at Centennial in eight innings on June 10.
