The Ankeny Centennial softball team is in the midst of an historic run.
The second-ranked Jaguars swept a pair of non-conference doubleheaders this weekend to extend their winning streak to 10 games while improving to 17-1 on the season. They pounded nine home runs in Saturday’s twinbill against visiting Linn-Mar (Marion) to increase their state-leading total to 46 homers.
Dallas Center-Grimes ranks second in all of Iowa with 31 home runs. No other team has more than 18.
“The girls are coming to the park with the mentality that they’re going to hit hard ground balls or hard line drives, and the next thing you know the ball is flying out of the park for them,” said Centennial coach Brett Delaney. “It’s fun to watch as a coach. You don’t take any of this for granted, and you just know that all the hard work the girls put in during the offseason is coming to fruition right now.”
Senior sluggers Jordyn Kennedy and Mady Ott accounted for seven of the team’s homers on Saturday. Kennedy had four of them, going 5-for-5 with nine RBIs on the day.
In the opener, Kennedy went 3-for-3 with three homers and seven RBIs in a 10-2 win in six innings. She went 2-for-2 with a double, a homer and two RBIs in the second game as the Jaguars completed a sweep with a 13-3 victory in four innings.
Kennedy now ranks second in the state with 11 homers, just one behind Kyla Schulte of Clear Creek Amana. She raised her career total to 60 homers, putting her within striking distance of Kendyl Lindaman’s all-time record of 71.
“It’ll be curious to see what happens the second half of the season,” Delaney said. “Jordyn is lucky that she has hitters behind her so it’s tough to pitch around her. You don’t want to put her on to get to Mady and to Mylie (Hatfield) and to everybody else. The protection that she has is pretty special.”
Ott provided plenty of protection on Saturday, going 2-for-3 with a double and a solo homer in the first game. She then went 2-for-2 with a pair of homers and five RBIs in the nightcap, giving her eight homers on the season and 42 in her career.
After No. 9 Linn-Mar (7-5) took a 2-0 lead in the first game, Centennial tied it in the bottom of the frame on a two-run homer by Ava Faber, her third of the season. Kennedy and Ott then followed with two more homers, giving the Jaguars back-to-back-to-back blasts and setting the tone for the rest of the day.
Peyten Spiegel (5-0) allowed two hits over the first five innings to earn the win. She racked up seven strikeouts.
Hatfield (3-1) was the winning pitcher in the second game. She allowed three earned runs on five hits and had four strikeouts.
“We’re very fortunate to have a deep pitching staff too,” Delaney said. “I would say that top to bottom, from offense to defense to the pitching and from 1 to 24, this is probably the best team we’ve had at Centennial. There are girls coming off the bench pushing us every day and challenging those girls in the lineup to be out there producing every day.”
Gracie Anderson had three of the Jaguars’ 13 hits in the nightcap, including her first homer of the season. She also doubled and knocked in four runs.
Faber went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs. Hatfield went 2-for-3 with a double and scored a run.
On Friday, the Jaguars posted a 5-1 win at No. 15 Cedar Falls before holding off the Tigers in the nightcap for a 9-7 victory. The doubleheader was a rematch of last year’s third-place game at the Class 5A state tournament, which was won by Centennial, 10-2, in six innings.
“Cedar Falls played us tough,” Delaney said. “We dropped two games to them last year (during the regular season), and we had that in the back of our minds. They’re just a team that is never going to give up. They can swing it, and they have some good pitchers. They’re just a good solid team, and it was good for us to see a team like that outside the CIML.”
Spiegel tossed a four-hitter in the first game. She walked two and had 13 strikeouts.
Cami Starr doubled and had two RBIs for the Jaguars. Ott went 3-for-4 and knocked in a run.
Kennedy doubled and had one RBI. Faber went 2-for-4 with a double and scored a run.
In the second game, Centennial built an 8-2 lead before the Tigers (10-7) scored four runs in the fifth inning. Hatfield allowed just one unearned run over the last three innings in relief of Kori Lincicum (3-0), who tossed four-plus innings to earn the win–giving up five earned runs on five hits.
Lincicum went 3-for-4 at the plate with a solo home run. It was her seventh homer of the season.
Kennedy also had a big game, going 3-for-4 with a double, a homer and three RBIs. Ott went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs, while Faber scored a pair of runs.
The Jaguars will travel to Urbandale on Monday for a CIML Conference game against the J-Hawks, who are currently on a 10-game losing streak. Urbandale is 0-11 in the league and 3-13 overall after losing to No. 1 Waukee Northwest, 11-0, in four innings on Saturday.
That win allowed the Wolves (10-1) to move a half game ahead of Centennial (9-1) at the top of the conference standings.