The Ankeny Centennial baseball team held on for a 6-5 victory against visiting Johnston to salvage a split of Thursday’s CIML Conference doubleheader.
After the Jaguars scored three runs in the sixth inning to build a 6-0 lead, Johnston then rallied for five runs in the seventh before Trae Houser came in and shut the door.
“Johnston made it close, but Trae showed some courage in closing it out,” said Centennial coach Mark Hey. “It was two tough games, but I thought we played with a lot more energy in the second game.”
Eli Starr (1-1) earned the win in the nightcap. He took a shutout into the seventh after allowing just one hit over 6 1/3 innings in his previous start.
“Eli pitched extremely well again,” Hey said.
Will Morris also played a huge role in the victory.
“Will had a couple very important sacrifice bunts that led to our first three runs,” Hey said. “And then Will had a double that drove in another couple runs later in the game.”
The Dragons posted a 5-0 triumph in the opener. Adam Callen tossed a five-hitter and walked none while racking up 10 strikeouts.
Centennial starter Brekken Miller (1-1) also cruised through the first three innings before losing his command of the strike zone in the fourth, when he walked the bases loaded with no outs. Miller eventually struck out the side, but not before Will Davies and Sam Kinney drew two more walks to force in a pair of runs.
Davies hit a one-out single off reliever Jack Loutsch in the sixth. He then scored on a double by Trevin Helming to make it 3-0.
In the seventh, Owen Hupfer blasted a two-run homer off Morris to complete the scoring.
The Dragons are now 2-1 in the conference and 2-3 overall. Centennial’s records are 1-2 and 5-3.
The Jaguars will host a conference game against Ankeny (1-9) on Monday.
