The Ankeny baseball team closed out the regular season on Monday with a 15-5 victory at Fort Dodge in five innings in a non-conference game.
The Hawks scored six runs in the second inning, then added two in the fourth and seven more in the fifth to build a 15-0 advantage. Fort Dodge answered with five runs in the bottom of the fifth, but it wasn’t enough to prolong the game.
Ankeny will take an 18-22 record into postseason play. The Dodgers’ mark dropped to 19-21.
“For 4 1/2 innings we were pretty sharp,” said Ankeny coach Joe Balvanz. “We had a couple miscues in the bottom of the fifth that let them get a few runs, but overall we swung the bats well and we played good defense.”
Jack Clevidence (2-5) allowed just one hit over two scoreless innings to earn the win. He recorded five strikeouts.
Clevidence also went 2-for-2 with a home run and four RBIs. He has hit three of the team’s six homers this season.
Will Davies had two RBIs and also tossed two hitless innings of relief.
“I thought Jack and Will were very sharp on the mound,” Balvanz said. “We were keeping everyone under a certain pitch count to prepare for Friday.”
Blake Morgan went 2-for-4 and drove in three runs. Kinnick Vos scored three runs and knocked in two more.
Henry Ha went 3-for-3 and had one RBI. Carson Riggs went 2-for-4 and scored a pair of runs.
Samuel Sandvig and Evan Irlmeier each had a hit and scored twice. Sandvig also had an RBI.
“I was really happy with our approach from 1 through 9,” Balvanz said. “We hit a lot of line drives and balls up the middle. The guys are understanding their roles, and we have them playing about as well as they can be heading into the postseason.”
The Hawks will play Council Bluffs Lincoln (19-20) in a Class 4A substate quarterfinal on Friday at 5 p.m. The game will be played on the turf field at Iowa Western Community College.
“We don’t see the west side of the state very often, and we’ve got to get ready to play on the turf,” Balvanz said. “But I feel pretty good about our plan. The game at Fort Dodge was kind of a good simulation for Friday. Get on the bus, go play seven innings and hopefully go home with the win.”
