The Ankeny Christian Academy softball team is on a roll.
After closing out the regular season with 10 consecutive victories, the Eagles opened postseason play on Wednesday and extended their winning streak with a 7-0 shutout over visiting North Tama in a Class 1A regional quarterfinal at North Polk Middle School.
“We had a plan and executed it well,” said ACA coach James Crosby. “Things kind of went according to plan.”
The Eagles (22-3) scored all of their runs in the middle innings. They took a 3-0 lead in the third, then added four more runs in the fourth.
That was more than enough support for Brette Bentz (13-3), who went the distance in the circle and allowed just four hits. She walked two and had eight strikeouts.
“I was just throwing strikes,” said Bentz. “I knew that my defense could back me up if they put the ball in play.”
After giving up a leadoff single to Josie Monat in the fifth inning, Bentz cruised the rest of the way. She retired the last nine batters that she faced.
“She’s definitely performed really well and has peaked at the end of the season,” said ACA third baseman Katelyn Weathers, who went 3-for-4 and had two RBIs to lead ACA’s offensive attack. “She just needs to stay confident and stay in her groove.”
Bentz survived a close call in the seventh inning when North Tama’s Harper Rausch led off with a line drive right back at her. The smash knocked the glove out of Bentz’s hand, but her sister–shortstop Breeze Bentz–picked the ball up and threw to first for the out.
“I felt the ball in my glove, and it just flat out knocked it off,” Bentz said. “Thankfully, it went right to Breeze and she was able to get the out.”
Weathers hit a one-out double in the first inning and went to third on an error, giving the Eagles a chance to take an early lead. However, she was then tagged out at home when she tried to score on a pitch in the dirt from North Tama’s Addison Hochstetler.
“I misread it and I got a bad jump, too. I got a really slow start,” Weathers said. “So I should not have gone.”
ACA continued to be aggressive on the basepaths, though. Breeze Bentz was hit by a pitch with one out in the third and stole second, then came home on a single up the middle by Weathers–who promptly stole second herself.
“We like to cause a little chaos,” Crosby said. “When we think there’s an opportunity to move the runner along, we want to take advantage of those. At least until (the opponent) shows they can stop it.”
Weathers scored when Gabbie Quick’s grounder to short was thrown away for an error. Quick later scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0.
In the fourth, ACA’s Abby Ferrand led off with a double to right-center field. She went to third on a wild pitch, then came home on a grounder by Lyss Johnson.
With two outs and nobody on, Livi Johnson reached on an error when her grounder to second went through the legs of Rausch. That led to three more unearned runs for the Eagles.
Johnson scored on Breeze Bentz’s triple to deep center field, then Weathers blooped an RBI double to right. Quick then followed with an RBI single to right-center.
The Eagles finished with seven hits off Hochstetler, who walked two and had no strikeouts. North Tama finished the season at 11-8.
“We knew that (Hochstetler) threw low, so we were expecting that,” Brette Bentz said. “We knew that she didn’t throw very many strikes–she had the same amount of strikeouts as walks. We just knew we had to be patient and wait for her to give us a strike and just pound the right side (of the field) because they had a shift on us.”
Monat had a pair of hits for North Tama, but she later grounded out to short to end the game. The Redhawks did not have a runner reach third base.
“We knew that they liked to play a game where they get runners on and try to move them along, so we wanted to crowd the infield and take away the slaps and bunts and make them hit it through,” Crosby said. “Brette pitched great, and it was a good win. It might have been one of our best defensive games of the year. We played a clean game.”
The Eagles will play at Martensdale-St. Marys (14-15) in a regional semifinal on Friday at 7 p.m. The Blue Devils advanced with a 6-1 win over BCLUW, getting a four-hitter and nine strikeouts from Maclaine German.
“There were a lot of balls thrown tonight, so it paid to be a little picky,” Weathers said. “But against Martensdale we’ll have to attack early, because if you get behind in the count then you’ll have to swing at something that is not your favorite pitch. We just have to keep the routine plays routine and go up there and swing the bat, because we’ve got to get hits and the only way you can do that is to swing the bats.”
Brette Bentz is confident that her teammates will continue to provide the support that she needs.
“We’re really good at getting these runs in,” she said. “If I can just keep pitching strikes, we’ll get the outs. We should be able to go a long way.”
