The hitters on the Ankeny Centennial baseball team struggled against Des Moines Roosevelt starter Joey Ahrens on Tuesday night.
Fortunately for Centennial, Ahrens wasn’t able to pitch a complete game.
The senior allowed just one run on three hits and had five strikeouts over the first four innings. But he was replaced after throwing 82 pitches, and the Jaguars then rallied for four runs against reliever Julian Nicolino to post a 5-2 victory at Centennial.
Tuesday’s game was the nightcap of a non-conference doubleheader that was halted by rain on May 18. Centennial also won the first game, 4-2.
“Roosevelt is a really good team and will compete for their conference title,” said Centennial coach Mark Hey, whose squad is now 4-1 on the season. “(Ahrens) threw really well and had us chasing some high fastballs. We didn’t hit well for the first part of the game, but we made some adjustments late and hit well over the last two innings.”
The Jaguars got a run off Ahrens in the second inning, but Roosevelt (0-6) then took the lead on a two-run double by Luther Cox in the fifth. It was only the Roughriders’ second hit off Centennial starter Tyler Majeski, who had eight strikeouts over the first 4 1/3 innings.
“Tyler was outstanding,” Hey said. “He battled through some tough situations and showed a lot of toughness. He had all his pitches working and got a lot of swing and misses.”
Brady Stewart (1-0) then relieved and got two outs to earn the win.
Centennial regained the lead for good with two runs in the fifth. The Jaguars then added two more in the sixth.
Alex Cory tripled and drove in a run, while Cade Newman doubled and had an RBI. Will Nesler went 2-for-4 and knocked in a run, and Majeski also had an RBI.
“Cade and Alex had good at-bats late and drove in a couple of big runs,” Hey said.
Will Morris closed out the game with two perfect innings to pick up his second save. He struck out four of the six batters that he retired.
Centennial will host Waukee (5-1) in its CIML Conference opener on Wednesday.