March 28, 2024

Cardinals fall to Ankeny in 4A substate

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ANKENY — Jaron Roush slid across home plate, his batting helmet went flying in the air as the Newton High senior celebrated scoring the first run of Friday’s Class 4A Substate 7 quarterfinal.

With him reaching on a dropped third strike and scoring on a two-out error on a ball hit by junior Ryan Barr, it appeared it was going to be a good night on the diamond for the Cardinals. Newton senior pitcher Trevor Ergenbright and the Cardinal defense had a solid bottom of the first inning.

Then the second inning rolled around. Ankeny’s Hawks took advantage of walks, Cardinal errors and a hit batter to score five runs. The hosting Hawks added another run in the third, going on to win 6-1.

It was a game with a combined three hits by the two teams and none of the singles produced an RBI.

“They were who we thought they were. We had them scouted well. We knew they could boot the ball around a bit and we got that in the first two innings,” Newton head coach Dustin Brisel said. “But we can’t turn around and do the same, which is what happened in the second inning.”

The Cardinals finished the 2018 season at 11-21. They have five graduating seniors with Roush, Ergenbright, Blayden Rhone, Kamden Kuennen and Cole Cazett.

“Overall, it was fun season. I was talking to our five seniors after the game and it was extremely fun coaching them,” Brisel said. “They are the heart and soul of this team. We’re going to miss them a ton. They have extremely bright futures. They left their mark here and will be part of the Cardinal baseball family forever.”

Roush led the game off by reaching on a dropped third strike. Then with two gone, Barr hit a fly ball to right field, which was dropped. Roush raced from first to home plate and Barr ended up at third base.

Junior Ben Leal was safe with one gone in the second inning on a Hawk error. But Hawk senior pitcher Jayden Maifeld took control with two straight strikeouts.

Maifeld settled in on the mound after the first inning. He gave up one hit, hit one batter and struck out 10 as the winning pitcher going the distance.

“Maifeld is the real deal. He overpowered us. When we put the ball in play good things happened as it did in the first inning. We hit the ball hard at times but right at people after that,” Brisel said.

Giving free passes to the bases played a part in the loss also. Ergenbright walked three and hit two batters in the second inning. He walked the leadoff Hawk batter in the third then Barr took over on the mound and walked one.

Newton had five errors in the game — two came in the second and one in the third to allow runs.

Jase Bauer drew a leadoff walk for the Hawks in the second inning and AJ Slattenow was safe on an error. Henri Harpenau reached on a bunt single to load the bases.

Peyton Agan worked a base-on-balls to force in a run then Cameron Rinker was hit by a pitch to plate the go-ahead run. Back-to-back sacrifice fly balls by Brody Brecht and Seth Harpenau drove in two more runs.

Drew Hill was hit by a pitch and Maifeld was safe on another Cardinal error to load the bases again. Bauer drew his second walk of the inning to force in the fifth run of the inning.

“We worked on bunt defense Thursday. We had rep after rep on it. We didn’t execute well on the bunts. We didn’t make the plays defensively we needed to tonight,” Brisel said.

Henri Harpenau walked to begin the third inning. Brisel made the pitching change bringing Barr from behind the plate to the mound and Ergenbright went to shortstop.

Junior Ty Arguello, who started the game as the designated hitter, went in to catch. Brisel also moved sophomore Julian Hotchkin from short to third base and sophomore Taylor Danley moved from third base to first base.

Barr struck out Agan but courtesy runner Cooper Cox stole second base for the Hawks. Rinker drew a walk then with two gone, Seth Harpenau was safe on an error as Cox scored.

Newton found itself down 6-1 after three innings. The only hit the Cardinals got was a single by Arguello in the third inning.

Ergenbright took the loss, going two innings and allowing six runs — only two were earned — on one hit, four walks and two hit batters. Barr pitched four innings, and gave up one hit, walked one, hit two batters and struck out five.

The two singles for the Hawks were by Henri Harpenau and Seth Harpenau. The Hawks have won six games in a row.

“We had a lot of young guys who got varsity experience this season and a lot of young guys coming up from the eighth grade, freshman and sophomore classes,” Brisel said. “I’m looking forward to next year with that group of players. We’ll get right to work this offseason and be ready to go when it comes May.”

In the other two 4A Substate 7 quarterfinals on Friday, top-seeded and second-ranked Urbandale beat Des Moines Hoover 10-0 in five innings and fourth-seeded Des Moines East upended third-seeded Ottumwa, 4-0.

Ankeny (20-16-1) hosts Des Moines East in a semifinal on Monday while Urbandale has a bye into the Substate 7 championship game. The winner of the semifinal plays Urbandale on Wednesday with the winner advancing to the 4A state tournament.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com