The struggles of early July have been long forgotten by the Ankeny softball players.
The ninth-ranked Hawkettes are headed to the state tournament.
Abby Rusher tossed a six-hitter and Kensington Arringdale hit a home run to lead Ankeny past No. 10 Southeast Polk, 6-2, in a Class 5A regional final on Tuesday at Ankeny. The Hawkettes (21-20), who ended the regular season on a six-game losing streak, earned their second consecutive trip to Fort Dodge.
“We have some unfinished business,” said Rusher. “We want to prove something up there.”
This was the third time in five seasons that Ankeny and Southeast Polk met in regional play. The Rams (20-21) had won the previous two meetings.
“I guess the rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated,” said Ankeny coach Dave Bingham. “There’s a little fight in these girls. I don’t think we played the perfect game, but we hit the ball and did some timely things. We had runners on in every inning, so that was good.
“Ultimately, our goal is to win a championship. But in the times that we live in now, it’s a different deal. It puts a lot of pressure on this game. We weren’t perfect, but we handled the pressure tonight,” he added.
Ankeny held a 2-1 lead after three innings before Arringdale provided some insurance with a two-run blast in the fourth. It was the sixth home run in 21 games for Arringdale, a sophomore.
“They were throwing me outside the first two at-bats–and I didn’t do so well,” said Arringdale. “I was looking inside because that’s my power pitch. When they threw it there, I just knew…..Swing!”
Arringdale had played sparingly late in the season due to a shoulder injury that she suffered while playing with her travel team.
“It was just hurting me from overuse, but I’m good now,” she said. “It doesn’t affect my batting at all.”
Arringdale has been a sparkplug at the top of Ankeny’s lineup this season. She is now batting .500 with 13 extra-base hits and 19 RBIs.
“When they’re here and in the lineup, they’re special,” Bingham said of Arringdale and Cassie Johnson, another player who has spent some time with a travel team. “(Arringdale) added a good dimension tonight–she hit a couple to the fence. The home run was key, but we just had a lot of quality at-bats. We grinded out a couple of runs early, and we just played some Dick Rasmussen softball. Got runners on and moved them over. We played the game the right way.”
Aubrey Lensmeyer went 2-for-3 and had an RBI in the win. Morgan Fisher also went 2-for-3 and scored a pair of runs.
Johnson and Kaylyn Miller each knocked in a run.
“This feels really, really good,” said Johnson, who had a sacrifice fly. “This is what we worked for all season. Honestly, I’m just so relieved and excited.”
Johnson suffered a foot injury early in the season and missed about a month of action. The Texas Tech recruit could have ended her high school career, but she was determined to get back onto the field.
“When I got injured, I kept my head up and tried to do my best to back the team any way I could,” she said. “This is just really rewarding knowing that I worked to get back for this.”
Rusher (14-10) went the distance in the pitcher’s circle, allowing two earned runs. She walked two and had three strikeouts.
“She pitched good enough,” Bingham said. “I wouldn’t say she had her best, but she had a really good game plan. I think sometimes we scout so much for these games, and that wreaks some havoc on the pitchers–because she was overthinking it. But she’s dynamite. She has been since she stepped onto the field, and we’ll take her up there (to Fort Dodge) and see what happens.”
Ankeny and Southeast Polk had split a CIML Conference doubleheader on June 20 at Pleasant Hill. Rusher allowed just one earned run on six hits as the Hawkettes won the opener, 12-5.
“You know the big hitters and who to watch out for,” Rusher said. “I watched a lot of film, looking at the batters again and seeing what they hit off me. They had seen me before, so I tried to change things up a little bit. I threw more rise(balls) instead of changeups, but I was pretty confident going into it. I had confidence in my defense behind me.”
Johnson, who started behind the plate, also had faith in Rusher.
“We felt really, really good,” she said. “We knew Abby pitched well against them the last time, and Aubrey could come in and take care of business, too. We prepared really well as a team and just stuck together.”
Like Ankeny, Southeast Polk had struggled at the end of the regular season. The Rams dropped six of their last eight games and then needed a three-run rally to beat Cedar Falls, 6-5, in a regional semifinal.
“I had a good feeling when I woke up this morning that we were going to come out hot and just crush them,” Arringdale said.
The Hawkettes will play No. 4 Waukee Northwest (33-7) in the Class 5A quarterfinals on Monday at 10:30 a.m. on Iowa Central Field at Harlan Rogers Park. The Wolves qualified for state for the third straight year with a 4-0 triumph over Des Moines Lincoln.
The two teams split a doubleheader on June 3 at Ankeny. They also met in a consolation game at last year’s state tournament, where Northwest posted a 6-4 win.
“There’s been a couple of upsets tonight,” Johnson said of the other regional finals. “We’re going in as a better seed than we thought, so we’re super duper confident about what we can do up there.”
The Wolves boast one of the state’s best players in eighth grader Sophia Schlader, who is tied for the state lead in home runs with 18. She owns a 19-5 mark as a pitcher.
“We just come in here relaxed and having fun,” Rusher said. “We all love to be here and love to play the game. And we like to win.”
Arringdale said she thinks the Hawkettes can continue to surprise anyone who doubts them.
“Heck yeah, we can,” she said. “You just never know.”
