The Ankeny Centennial baseball team might have the deepest pitching staff in the state.
The fifth-ranked Jaguars showed off their tremendous depth on Monday as Will Morris and Tripp Rawlings tossed back-to-back complete games in a doubleheader sweep over visiting Urbandale.
Morris threw a four-hitter and had nine strikeouts to lead Centennial to a 4-1 win in the opener. Rawlings then tossed a three-hitter and had eight strikeouts as the Jaguars posted a 1-0 victory in the nightcap.
“We just had outstanding pitching from both of those guys,” said Centennial coach Mark Hey, whose team wrapped up a second-place finish in the CIML Conference.
Rawlings needed to be at his best because the Jaguars had just three hits in the second game. He raised his record to 5-1.
Centennial scored the game’s lone run in the second inning. Joey Oakie led off with a walk, went to third on a single by Morris and came home on an error.
Rawlings escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth. He got a strikeout and then fielded a grounder to get out of the inning.
“Tripp has grown so much over the last couple of years and even this season he’s just gotten better and better,” Hey said. “He’s going to Ellsworth next year, and I think they’re getting a great pitcher. He just has great maturity on the mound.”
Rawlings outdueled Urbandale’s Clayton Renfrew, whose errant pickoff attempt allowed Oakie to score the game’s only run.
“He pitched well,” Hey said of Renfrew. “It wasn’t that we weren’t hitting because we were out of sync. He just pitched an outstanding game. I think we’ll be fine.”
In the opener, the Jaguars scored twice in the fifth to break a 1-1 tie. They then added another run in the sixth.
Morris (5-2) helped his own cause with an RBI single in the first inning. Elijah Starr and Jackson Reed each scored a run and knocked in another.
“Will has been one of our better pitchers all year,” Hey said. “He just has great composure out there.”
Centennial improved to 16-7 in the conference and 27-10 overall. The J-Hawks’ records dropped to 5-18 and 14-21.
The Jaguars will host Valley (13-19) in their regular-season finale on Tuesday. The two teams split a doubleheader at Valley on May 29.
