After dropping a pair of games at the Fort Dodge Invitational on Friday, the Ankeny softball team rebounded on Saturday with victories over two ranked Class 1A opponents to earn a 13th-place finish overall.
The Hawkettes began the day with a 9-8 win over No. 7 Newell-Fonda (15-6). They closed out the tournament with a 10-4 triumph over No. 15 Martensdale-St. Marys (9-9).
“It was a great way to bounce back after the last couple of days,” said Ankeny coach Sarah Saladino, whose team is now 9-13 on the season. “We did a lot of things well in both games, and it was a great way to end the week with another tough week coming up.”
With a couple of players out of the lineup, Ankeny got contributions from many of its younger athletes, including eighth grader Sophie Schoeppner. She made just her second appearance of the season in the circle, tossing three shutout innings to earn the win against Martensdale-St. Marys.
Schoepper (1-0) allowed just one hit and one walk.
“We had some athletes in different positions, and we were young in a lot of positions but that didn’t affect us at all,” Saladino said. “We had some eighth graders who really stepped up and understood their role in the two games we played today. Sophie did great to close it out.”
Eighth graders Avery Wildman and Adriana Wylie also played huge roles in the win. Wildman went 2-for-3 and drove in three runs, while Wylie went 1-for-1 with two walks, scored two runs and knocked in another.
“At one point I looked on the field and we had one senior and the rest were sophomores, freshmen and eighth graders,” Saladino said.
Sarah Munger went 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs for the Hawkettes. It was her fourth homer of the season.
Brylee Bach went 2-for-3 and drove in a run. Avery Nelson went 2-for-4 with a triple and had one RBI, while McKenna Byers contributed a pinch-hit double.
Earlier, Newell-Fonda scored four runs in the top of the sixth inning to tie the game at 8-8 before Ankeny scored the winning run in walk-off fashion with one out in the bottom of the frame.
Kensington Arringdale hit her team-leading seventh home run and had three RBIs in the win. Emerson Hutchins blasted her fourth homer and drove in two runs.
Nelson went 1-for-2 with two walks, scored two runs and knocked in two more. The Hawkettes had just six hits, but it was enough to offset home runs by Newell-Fonda’s Jocee Walsh and Mylie Hinders.
Emma Munger (3-8) was the winning pitcher. She went the distance, allowing eight earned runs on 11 hits.
Ankeny opened the tournament on Friday with an 8-3 loss to Winterset, the No. 9 team in Class 4A. Danica Ferber went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs as the Huskies improved to 12-9.
Bach went 2-for-2 with a double and two RBIs in the loss. Kinsley Ihle also drove in a run.
Emma Munger took the loss. She allowed five earned runs on three hits in 1 1/3 innings.
The Hawkettes later dropped a 10-2 decision to Ames for their fifth consecutive loss. The Little Cyclones (11-11) scored a run in the second inning to break a 2-2 tie, then added two runs in the fourth and five more in the fifth.
Emma Munger was credited with the loss. She allowed three earned runs on five hits over 3 1/3 innings, but also went 2-for-2 at the plate with a triple and one RBI.
Arringdale doubled and knocked in a run. Sarah Munger also had a double.
Ankeny will host a CIML Conference game on Monday against Urbandale, which is 0-15 in the league and 4-18 overall. The Hawkettes swept a doubleheader at Urbandale on June 3.