Some early opportunities to score slipped away from the Ankeny baseball team, and it proved to be costly.
The Hawks went on to drop a 9-2 decision at Johnston in their CIML Conference opener on Wednesday. It was the first win of the season for the Dragons, who improved to 1-2 overall.
“We had runners on first and second with nobody out early on, and we popped up a bunt into a double play,” said Ankeny coach Joe Balvanz, whose team dropped to 1-5. “And then we had first and second with nobody out again a couple innings later and hit a line drive that (Johnston) turned into a double play. Those are big momentum killers.”
The Dragons scored four runs in the third inning to break a 0-0 tie. Hunter Minner (1-2) took the loss, allowing five earned runs on seven hits while recording five strikeouts over the first three innings.
“Minner probably pitched better than what his line looks like,” Balvanz said. “They just really battled with two strikes.”
Johnston added a run in the fourth, then scored four more in the sixth to extend the margin to 9-0. Ryan Wille drove in both of the Hawks’ runs in the seventh inning.
“We only had one inning–the sixth–where we went down in order,” Balvanz said. “We had guys on base, but we probably took too many good fastballs. We had 13 quality at-bats and usually 15 will win you the game. We just need to be more productive offensively.”
Johnston’s Ahvyance Taylor homered and had three RBIs in the win. Former Ankeny player Will Davies went 2-for-2 with two doubles and scored a pair of runs.
“We’re trying our best,” Balvanz said. “We’ll just keep plugging away.”
The Hawks will play a conference doubleheader at Waukee on Thursday. The Warriors (6-1) opened league play on Wednesday with a 2-1 win at Ankeny Centennial.
