The Ankeny baseball team managed just three hits and dropped a 5-1 decision at Southeast Polk on Thursday, extending the Hawks’ losing skid to 10 games.
The Rams earned their fourth straight win behind a dominant pitching performance from Alex Williams, who allowed just one unearned run and racked up 13 strikeouts over the first 6 1/3 innings. He departed after throwing 111 pitches and was replaced by Will Zook, who got the final two outs to close out the game.
Ace Parton went 2-for-2 with a walk for Ankeny, which was held to one run or less for the 10th time this season. Quin Somers twice reached base on a hit by pitch and scored the Hawks’ lone run in the third inning, when he was knocked in by Jack Romig.
Hunter Minner (2-6) went the distance on the mound. He allowed two earned runs on seven hits and had six strikeouts over six innings.
Southeast Polk’s Maddox Sanders had the only extra-base hit in the game. He doubled and drove in a run, while Jaxson Regan went 2-for-3 and scored a run.
The Rams improved to 9-7 in the CIML Conference and 19-9 overall. Ankeny’s records fell to 2-14 and 6-23.
The Hawks will host a pair of games in the Brent Prange Classic on Saturday. They will face Class 3A No. 2 MOC-Floyd Valley (16-5) at 2:30 p.m. and Davenport West (8-11) at 4:45 p.m.