T-R PHOTO BY NOAH ROHLFING - Marshalltown junior Ava Augustine delivers to the plate during the second game of Monday’s CIML Iowa Conference softball doubleheader against Ankeny Centennial at the MHS diamond. Centennial, ranked No. 2 in the Class 5A preseason poll, beat the Bobcats 16-0 in three innings and 14-0.

The defending state runner-up ran circles around the Marshalltown High School softball team in Monday’s season-opening doubleheader, as Ankeny Centennial smashed its way to a CIML Iowa Conference sweep of the host Bobcats.

The Jaguars, ranked No. 2 in the Class 5A preseason poll, needed only three innings to knock out the Bobcats in the first game of the season, 16-0. Marshalltown made a game out of the second contest, trailing 2-0 through four innings only to succumb to Centennial 14-0 in the nightcap.

The Jags totaled 27 hits in the twinbill, while Marshalltown made 11 errors defensively.

“They got second place last year so I totally understand that,” MHS head coach Jim Palmer said of Centennial’s preseason ranking. “In the first game we were super-flat and their pitcher throws very well. She’s a great riseball pitcher, so the struggle bus was there for us.”

The Bobcats, coming off their eighth consecutive season of single-digit victories, managed just three hits in 10 total innings in the doubleheader sweep. Jordyn Daggett had Marshalltown’s only hit in the first game, preventing Lauren Gustofson’s perfect game with a one-out single in the bottom of the third. Gustofson finished with four strikeouts and no walks in the three-inning win.

MHS starting pitcher Avery Mull allowed 11 runs, though only five were earned, in 2 2/3 innings. She surrendered eight hits and one walk before exiting with an apparent right leg injury. Ava Augustine surrendered five unearned runs in her two-thirds of an inning, giving up three hits.

Jordyn Kennedy homered and doubled for the Jags, driving in four runs.

In game two, Augustine held Centennial in check for four innings before the Jaguars put up a five-spot in the top of the fifth, powered by a three-run homer for Mackenzie James. The Bobcats didn’t get their first hit against Jadeyn Stahr until the bottom of the sixth, but it was a 7-0 deficit by then.

“Ava pitched a really strong game,” Palmer said. “I’m happy with it. Her low rise was working well and that’s what kept us in the game. I could tell she got frustrated. When you have too many mistakes behind you, it’s hard to keep going.”

Laney Danielson singled to lead off the sixth for MHS, but Daggett grounded into a double play. Sophie Younkin followed with a single before Stahr recorded her eighth of nine strikeouts to get out of the inning.

Centennial applied icing to the cake with a seven-run seventh to make it a 14-0 final.

Augustine allowed eight earned runs on 16 hits and one walk, striking out one.

“It’s our first games so I don’t put a lot of stock in it, but there’s some because we made too many mistakes, too many errors, and when you do that you just give up that many runs,” Palmer said. “You can’t give them the extra outs, you just can’t. We had many opportunities where we could have caught some fly balls, slid under a few, did a little bit better on the infield.

“It’s just first-game jitters, I think we’re working and trying to figure everything out, but at the same time they’re all competing for a position.”

Marshalltown is scheduled to host Newton for a JV/varsity doubleheader tonight at the MHS diamond.