The Ankeny Centennial baseball team entered Monday’s doubleheader at Waukee Northwest needing a lot of help to stay alive in the CIML Conference race.
The Jaguars didn’t get it.
While fifth-ranked Centennial swept the No. 8 Wolves, No. 4 Johnston also swept a twinbill at Southeast Polk to wrap up the outright league crown. The Dragons improved to 18-5 with just one game left.
Joey Oakie led the Jaguars to their two wins. He allowed just two hits and had 10 strikeouts over five innings as Centennial rolled to a 10-2 victory in the opener, then hit his fourth home run of the season and had three RBIs in a 5-3 triumph in the nightcap.
The Jaguars raised their records to 14-7 in the conference and 24-9 overall. Northwest dropped to 12-11 and 21-14.
Oakie, who is preparing for the upcoming MLB amateur draft, gave up just two unearned runs. He is now 4-2 on the season.
“I thought he had good velocity and good movement on his slider,” said Centennial coach Mark Hey, whose team avenged a 3-2 loss in eight innings on June 10. “His control maybe wasn’t where it normally was, but I was really happy with the way he threw. They had a couple of infield singles, and that was it. I was very happy with the boys.”
Centennial scored three runs in each of the first two innings, then added four more in the third to build a 10-0 lead before the Wolves even got a runner on base against Oakie.
“The way he approaches doesn’t change with a big lead or a small lead. He just pitches his game,” Hey said. “You could see how he mixed, and sometimes he would throw his slider in fastball counts and vice versa. He just did a really nice job of keeping the hitters off balance.”
Jackson Reed went 2-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs for the Jaguars. Isaac Bruhl went 2-for-5, scored two runs and drove in two more.
Will Morris also had two RBIs in the win. Preston Glatt and Elijah Starr each scored twice.
Oakie retired the first six batters he faced before Gus Ruggle walked to lead off the bottom of the third. He then allowed a two-out infield single by Sam Johnson for the Wolves’ first hit.
Ruggle raced home to score on an errant pickoff attempt. Johnson then scored on another throwing error.
The Jaguars survived a scare with two outs in the fourth inning, when Ruggle reached on an infield hit with a smash that deflected off Oakie.
“It hit him in the wrist. He was ok,” Hey said. “He was able to stay in, but I’m sure it didn’t feel very good. But he’s a tough kid, and it was good to see he was able to bounce back and stay in there.”
Prior to the second game, Hey said he was hoping his team could get off to another fast start.
“We kind of want to keep that intensity on,” he said. “We’re hoping we come out here in Game 2 with that same fire that we had at the start of that first game.”
And that’s what the Jaguars did. Oakie hit a three-run homer in the first inning, and the team never looked back.
Starr and Kohen Bollwinkel each went 2-for-3 with a run scored. Starr had a double.
Glatt also doubled and drove in a run. Bruhl hit a sacrifice fly in the second inning to make it 4-0.
Tripp Rawlings (4-1) earned the victory. He allowed two earned runs on three hits and had seven strikeouts over the first 4 1/3 innings.
Carter Smalley closed out both games for the Jaguars. He allowed no runs over a combined 4 2/3 innings.
Centennial will return to Northwest on Wednesday for a pair of non-conference games. The Jaguars will play No. 3 Iowa City High (31-6) at 11 a.m. and Cedar Rapids Prairie (23-11) at 1:30 p.m.
