(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
The Ankeny Christian Academy baseball team feels like it’s on the cusp of making its first Class 1A state tournament in program history.
But the Lynnville-Sully Hawks continue to be the major roadblock that the Eagles have yet to break through.
ACA had its season ended with a close game in substate play against the Hawks for the third consecutive year on Tuesday. The latest matchup ended in a 6-2 loss for the Eagles in a Class 1A substate final at Newton.
“I’m very proud of them,” said ACA coach Konrad Christensen. “We jumped on them early, which we’ve never done and nobody really has. These young guys, man, they felt they were going to win the whole game and did, too.”
Lynnville-Sully has been one of the top programs in 1A over the past couple of seasons, yet the Eagles have always found a way to threaten the upset.
Two years ago, ACA faced a Lynnville-Sully squad that had only been defeated once all season going into the district final and the Eagles dropped a 4-2 decision, holding the Hawks to one of their lowest run totals of 2023.
Last season, Eli Christensen pitched a gem in a major pitcher’s duel against Lynnville-Sully’s Carson Maston in the substate final. Christensen struck out 10 and only allowed three hits before the Hawks won it, 1-0, in nine innings.
Lynnville-Sully went on to win the Class 1A crown a year ago.
“We’ve played them in the regular season, and they’ve ended our season in a few heartbreaking ways the last couple of seasons,” Christensen said. “But we want them and now we really want them. This team has an edge to them, they all kind of have that clutch gene and they want them back.”
Despite facing Maston on the mound once again, the Eagles put Lynnville-Sully (24-2) in a rare spot by its standards as ACA jumped out to an early lead in the second inning.
Freshman Tyler Davis drew a one-out walk while Maston got off to a slower start in the game, which the Eagles capitalized on.
Braley Miller followed Davis up with a single before Tyson Fincham lined a single down the third-base line to score Davis from second. Conner Crosby proceeded to drill a hard grounder up the middle, and some aggressive baserunning from Fincham put ACA up 2-0 over the reigning champs.
“The bottom of the order in the playoffs just sparked us,” Christensen said. “We started to really roll. We had a hit or two after that and just couldn’t take advantage. The top of the order got a little shaky in the playoffs, but they’ll step up next year and we’ll be back at it.”
The Hawks threatened to rally in the bottom of the inning, but a double play turned by Landon Curtis at shortstop and a hard grounder fielded by Davis at second held them off the scoreboard.
Eventually, the Hawks settled down and Maston found his groove by racking up 11 strikeouts and holding ACA scoreless after the Eagles’ two-run inning.
The top of Lynnville-Sully’s lineup was able to get them over the hump in the third and fifth innings.
Terran Gosselink drove in the Hawks’ first run during the third, which was followed by an RBI groundout from Jack Bowlin and an RBI single from Lannon Montgomery to take a 3-2 lead.
Jaiden Richards set the tone in the fifth with a leadoff double and was quickly sent home on a double from Maston. An error in the outfield brought in another run, and an RBI single from Montgomery made it six unanswered runs.
“He’s amazing,” Christensen said of ACA starting pitcher Lucas Erickson. “There were a few errors, so it should’ve been a 3-2 ball game. But it happens and he’s got such a positive attitude. I said, ‘Do you want to finish this?’
“And he says, ‘Heck yes!’”
The Eagles’ confidence hasn’t taken a hit at all despite three consecutive postseason losses to the Hawks.
In fact, there’s plenty of excitement with where the program sits.
There were seven starting seniors that graduated from the 2024 team that finished with an 18-9 record, so there were plenty of question marks about the lineup and the expectations heading into 2025.
“Going into this year, we had lost eight seniors and Eli last year and we didn’t know for sure what we had,” Christensen said. “A lot of talent (this year), but kind of raw. It came together and peaked at the right time. We’d love to keep playing, but we’ll let that fire burn and work harder next season.”
ACA produced a 15-11 season overall and made another deep run in the substate tournament that saw the Eagles open with a 9-2 win over Melcher-Dallas, outlast Southeast Warren 5-3 in nine innings and then blank Baxter 6-0 to make its second consecutive substate final.
But unlike last season where most of the starting lineup graduated, the Eagles are expecting to return almost their entire roster next year with Josh Bee as the only departing senior.
The expectation bar for the 2026 season will be raised even higher with the starting nine from Tuesday’s game coming back another year older and wiser.
And they’re hoping that it’ll finally be their turn to win the substate title and reach the state tournament.
“We can’t wait for next year,” Christensen said. “Everybody’s back, we’re going to work twice as hard, have more depth and we want to play (Lynnville-Sully) again next year, let’s put it that way.”
