After dropping six of its previous seven games, the Ankeny softball team needed to make some adjustments.
The 13th-ranked Hawkettes responded on Wednesday with a 7-2 victory over visiting Dowling Catholic.
“It was nice to get a ‘W’,” said Ankeny coach Sarah Saladino. “We’ve just gone back to work at practice and changed up a few things that we were doing with our process at the plate.”
Dowling jumped out to an early 2-0 lead before Ankeny rallied. The Hawkettes scored four runs in the third inning, then later added three more in the sixth.
Aubrey Lensmeyer (2-5) allowed just one earned run on six hits. She walked two and had seven strikeouts.
“Aubrey pitched well,” Saladino said.
Lensmeyer also helped her own cause at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Tenley Heidemann hit a two-run homer, her second of the season.
Avery Nelson and Brylee Bach each went 2-for-2 and scored twice in the win. Nelson had a double, walked twice and knocked in a run.
Morgan Fisher went 2-for-4 and had two RBIs. Sarah Munger doubled and scored a run.
“We had a lot of kids offensively step up,” Saladino said. “We had some timely hits and executed what we needed to do to scratch a win off.”
Ankeny improved to 4-7 in the CIML Conference and overall. The Maroons’ records dropped to 2-7 and 2-7.
The Hawkettes will play four games in the Creston Invitational this weekend. They will face Atlantic (10-5) and Creston (12-4) on Friday, then will meet Bondurant-Farrar (8-3) and Dallas Center-Grimes (14-0) on Saturday.
Dallas Center-Grimes, Bondurant-Farrar and Creston are ranked No. 5, No. 11 and No. 15, respectively, in Class 4A. Atlantic is the No. 13 team in Class 3A.
“We’re hoping to grab some more wins this weekend,” Saladino said.
