The Ankeny Centennial baseball team ran into one of the top pitchers in the CIML Conference in its league opener on Wednesday.
Waukee got a strong outing from righthander Brayden Moore to post a 2-1 victory at Centennial. The Iowa Central recruit tossed a four-hitter and had four strikeouts.
“He’s one of the better pitchers in the area and has been for a couple of years,” said Centennial coach Mark Hey. “We certainly faced a villain tonight.”
The Jaguars tried to rally in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Brekken Miller singled with one out and raced all the way to third on an error when the ball eluded center fielder Matt Meeker. Miller then came home on a sacrifice fly by Jacob Battershell before Trae Houser grounded out to end the game.
“Brekken has been swinging the bat really well,” Hey said. “This was no different. He had a great at-bat, and then Battershell drove him in. But with two outs, it was kind of hard to rally after that.”
Waukee (6-1) took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, then added another run in the fifth. Meeker and Ryan Lengeling each had an RBI for the Warriors.
Colton Arndt (0-1) took the loss, allowing two earned runs on five hits while recording nine strikeouts over the first five innings. Connor Williams tossed two hitless innings of relief and racked up three strikeouts for the Jaguars, who fell to 4-2 overall.
“I was really happy with Arndt,” Hey said. “He threw outstanding for five innings, and then Williams came in and did a nice job, too. We just kept their hitters off-balance, and that’s a great hitting team.
“I was proud of the way the guys battled,” he added.
Nolan Powell had a double for Centennial, which will host a conference doubleheader against Johnston (1-2) on Thursday. The Dragons opened league play on Wednesday with a 9-2 win over Ankeny.
