(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
Ankeny Centennial will be a tough softball team to beat at any point this season, and a young Ankeny squad ran into its crosstown rival at a bad time.
The second-ranked Jaguars saw the ball crystal clear from the plate and racked up 15 hits from 10 different batters in a 16-3 victory in four innings in their first matchup of the season with visiting Ankeny on Monday.
“(Ankeny) is a well coached team, and they’re going to get better,” said Centennial coach Brett Delaney. “Our girls came out with a focus tonight of hitting the ball hard on a line, find some opportunities and they took advantage of them tonight.”
“It’s hard to battle a lineup 1 through 9 and figure out who you’re going to pitch around and who you’re going to pitch to,” said Ankeny coach Sarah Saladino. “We have to produce more at the plate.”
Centennial hit five home runs on the night with all five blasts driving in multiple runs to bust the game wide open.
Senior Mylie Hatfield hit a three-run shot for her second homer of the season in the bottom of the first inning, helping her team to an early 5-0 lead.
The Jaguars did the bulk of their damage in the second inning, when they hit three more homers and piled on eight more runs.
Centennial seniors Mady Ott and Delaney Wyble both blasted their second homers of the year. Ott hammered another three-run shot to make it 9-0, and Wyble hit a two-run homer a few batters later to extend the margin to 11-0.
“We’ve been working in a lot of different things in practice and slowly, but surely, we’ll be getting everyone clicking,” Delaney said. “Tonight we had a lot of everybody going. It’s early in the season and we’ve got to stay composed, stay focused and play the best we can.”
Kori Lincicum tied Jordyn Kennedy for the team lead in homers with a two-run blast shortly thereafter. They both have three homers on the season.
Sophomore Emmy Ott put the icing on the cake with a pinch-hit, three-run homer in the bottom of the third for her first career home run.
“It’s a special thing and those girls are there for each other, getting every opportunity that they can and taking advantage of them,” Delaney said. “We could go to anybody on that bench, and they’re always ready and always eager.”
Ava Faber recorded a pair of RBI knocks to set up the scoring in the first and second innings, and Lauren Sandholm added an RBI single to close out the first inning.
While the veteran Jaguars were able to take advantage of a young Ankeny pitching rotation, the Hawkettes had to deal with Centennial’s ace in Sandholm, who hadn’t allowed a run in 13 previous innings this season.
Sophomores Morgan Fisher and Sarah Munger both recorded two hits against Sandholm with the biggest win of the night for Ankeny coming in the top of the third.
Fisher and senior Avery Nelson led off the inning with back-to-back singles before Munger was able to get a hold of a pitch from Sandholm and just cleared the rightfield fence for a three-run homer.
“We had a plan at the plate and when you trust the plan and adapt there at the plate, Sarah knew what her plan was,” Saladino said. “Sandholm is a great, strong pitcher on the mound. So trusting the plan and when the ball is there, making sure you’re ready to produce. I’m very proud of that.”
It was Munger’s first homer of the season and the third of her career.
Sandholm (3-0) picked up the win in the circle by tossing three innings, allowing three earned runs on four hits while recording six strikeouts. Ashley Sterling closed out the game for the Jaguars by getting the final three outs.
Ankeny is looking for its young rotation of Sarah Munger and eighth graders Taylor Hinshaw and Emma Munger to rebound after giving up 16 earned runs. Hinshaw (2-2) took the loss.
“The thing that we’ve talked about is that we just have to be gritty,” Saladino said. “We played Waukee nine innings and just the grit, the discipline and the strength it takes to come back each inning. That is going to be important for them. It’s early in the season, they’ll get innings under their belt and they’ll understand the process.”
Centennial remained atop the CIML Conference at 4-0 and improved to 5-0 overall. The Hawkettes’ records dropped to 1-3 and 2-4.
The Jaguars will play a conference doubleheader at No. 4 Southeast Polk (4-1) on Wednesday. Ankeny, meanwhile, will travel to Urbandale for a CIML twinbill against the J-Hawks (3-3).
“We’re just taking it one day at a time,” said Delaney, whose team will host a conference doubleheader against No. 1 Waukee Northwest (5-0) on Thursday. “We got practice then we got (Southeast Polk) on Wednesday, so it’s just day-by-day.”
