The Ankeny Centennial baseball players didn’t have any time to feel sorry for themselves.
After suffering a crushing 10-9 loss in the opener of Wednesday’s doubleheader at seventh-ranked Waukee, the Jaguars bounced back with a vengeance in the nightcap, pounding out 20 hits in a 14-2 victory that salvaged a split and snapped their four-game losing skid.
“Some of our guys play football and basketball, and in those sports you may have to wait a week to get on the field again to get that taste out of your mouth,” said Centennial coach Mark Hey. “But for us, it might be 20 minutes. It was good that we could play again right away.”
With the wind blowing out, Centennial smashed six doubles and a trio of home runs off three Waukee pitchers. Alex Cory led the way, going 4-for-5 with a double, a homer and four RBIs.
“Alex had a great game,” Hey said. “He just hit the ball hard every time he was up.”
Owen Gasperi also drove in four runs with a pair of homers, his first two of the season. Brekken Miller went 3-for-4 with a double and one RBI, while Will Nesler went 2-for-4 with a double and knocked in a run.
Cade Newman went 2-for-5 with a double and one RBI. Will Morris went 2-for-5 and scored two runs.
Morris also pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Eli Starr. He allowed just one hit and had four strikeouts after taking the loss in the first game.
Starr (2-2) gave up two earned runs on six hits and had three strikeouts over the first five innings.
“Eli threw outstanding, and Will pitched in both games and did very well,” Hey said. “(Using Morris in relief) allows us to use him at critical times. He’s been outstanding in that role.”
In the opener, the Jaguars were just one out away from a huge victory after rallying for three runs in the top of the seventh inning to erase a 7-6 deficit. Nesler tied the game with an RBI double before the potential go-ahead run was gunned down at the plate on the same play.
Trae Houser followed with another RBI double to put Centennial ahead. The Jaguars then added an insurance run to make it 9-7, but it wasn’t enough.
The Warriors rallied in the bottom of the frame against Morris (1-2). With two outs and runners on the corners, Finn Faber hit an RBI double and then raced home with the winning run when Griffin Landholm followed with a two-run single to walk it off.
“Sometimes that’s just the way baseball is,” Hey said. “We’ve just been kind of a little snakebit this week, and I actually thought we’d played very well but just hadn’t gotten a win yet. The first (game) was just a tough way to lose, but that’s just the way baseball works. You come back, and then you get a big win in the second game. Now everything feels right. It was good to see them rebound that way.”
Miller homered and had four RBIs in the opener. It was his second blast of the year.
Houser went 3-for-5 in the loss. Morris went 2-for-2 and had one RBI.
Houser also got the start on the mound. He allowed seven earned runs on nine hits and had five strikeouts over the first five innings.
Waukee got a pair of home runs from Gavin de Jesus and another from Ryan Lengeling.
“You have to give credit to the pitchers,” Hey said. “I thought Trae did a nice job. I told him, ‘I’m sorry you’re pitching with this wind.’ I thought he pitched outstanding, but when you look at his box score it probably doesn’t look like it. A lot of those balls that were hits would have been outs on normal days.”
Waukee remained in a first-place tie with No. 6 Urbandale in the CIML Conference. The Warriors are now 9-4 in the league and 15-6 overall, while Centennial’s records are 7-7 and 11-10.
The Jaguars will travel to Johnston on Thursday for another conference game against the Dragons, who are 8-6 in the league and 10-9 overall after recording a sweep at Ankeny on Wednesday.
