JOHNSTON — The Johnston baseball program celebrated its 12th-straight Central Iowa Metropolitan League championship this summer.

Marshalltown baseball coach Colton Hanke was excited to have fielded teams at all three competitive levels.

The two teams at opposite ends of the spectrum got paired up in the first round of Class 4A Substate 3 play and the result reflected it, as the sixth-ranked Dragons downed the Bobcats 15-0 in four innings on Friday night at Johnston Middle School.

The top-seeded Dragons (24-11) were breathing fire from the opening pitch and rapped out 12 hits while also taking advantage of every miscue Marshalltown made. The youthful Bobcats (6-26), with only one junior starter and the rest underclassmen, committed three errors and came away empty-handed.

Johnston senior pitcher Adam Callen tossed a four-inning perfect game, striking out eight, to advance to within one win of its 11th consecutive state tournament appearance. The Dragons share the longest active streak of state trips (10) and will need to beat either No. 4 seed Ankeny (14-26) or No. 5 seed Dowling Catholic (10-24) on Wednesday night to advance again.

Marshalltown was simply no match for a Johnston lineup chock full of seniors playing baseball at the next level, including Callen. The Northeast Iowa Community College recruit struck out eight Marshalltown’s nine hitters — MHS sophomore leadoff hitter Aiden Holmgren flew out twice — and only got to five pitches in an at-bat twice. He went the distance on just 42 pitches.

“I think the biggest thing I emphasized to our guys was that if you take a look, take a step back and look at the reality of the situation, it’s a young group,” said Hanke. “It’s teams like Johnston that you’re going to have to beat to go to state, and that’s the overall goal, so you’ve got to learn from these moments and put them in positions so they get used to that type of environment. This is a pretty good taste of what it could be like down the road.”

Ten different Dragons got hits as Johnston scored four, one, seven and three runs to end the game early by the mercy rule. Iowa Central commit Maxim Mincks was 2-for-2 with a two-run home run to lead the charge.

Marshalltown used four pitchers — two sophomores and two freshmen — and each gave up at least three runs. Holmgren got the start and the loss, allowing four runs on two hits and three total walks and was unable to escape the first inning.

Freshman left-hander Dane Hoogensen had the longest stint, giving up four runs over 1 2/3 frames, and sophomore Garrett Thede allowed four runs over one inning. Freshman lefty Jalen Logsdon gave up the last three runs in the fourth.

“You had to show us to stay in it, especially in this do-or-die situation,” Hanke said of his pitchers. “It was just a short leash for everybody in general because Johnston’s good, so you’ve gotta try and keep them off-balance the best you can so that’s the route we went with.”

The Bobcats had their chances to make some plays defensively, but they were unable to match the moment. Thede inherited two runners on base with no outs in the third before getting a ground ball up the middle off the bat of Henry Clevenger, but MHS eighth-grader Cayden Mares’s throw to first was off-target in an attempt to turn a double play.

Four pitches later, in an 0-2 count, Mincks homered to right field.

Freshman catcher Larrs Schoenfelder was tested all night by an aggressive baserunning bunch, but his throws were almost entirely spot-on. He nearly picked off courtesy runner Zachary Naig at third base, too, but Johnston finished 7-for-7 stealing bases.

The first two Dragons to face Logsdon got on base in the fourth, and a line drive off the bat of pinch-hitter Charles Adair glanced off freshman shortstop Madden Martin’s glove instead of what would have been a certain double play.

“I think you account for a couple mistakes for sure, but going into tonight we had to be pretty much perfect,” Hanke said. “Walks, hit batters, not being around the zone enough, and then the couple plays we should have had to limit the damage, we just didn’t make those plays unfortunately. And that’s just baseball.”

Marshalltown finished with six wins or fewer for the seventh year in a row but remained resolved that the future will bring the program’s best season since 2019.

“There’s a lot of potential,” said junior center fielder Luke Stalzer. “They all love the sport, and I think that’s the biggest thing. I love the sport, I love playing baseball, and we have a good connection with each other. That’s what keeps us coming back.

“We get a little break and then it starts in the offseason — offseason workouts, hitting the weight room — that’s where we’re probably going to see our biggest progress. If the young guys we have right now stay consistent, yeah, that’s obviously the goal is to be able to stick around with these teams and compete with them.”

Senior second baseman Jiancarlo Lopez will be the only player lost to graduation for the Bobcats, who utilized only five juniors but six eighth-graders on the diamond this summer.

“We were able to field three teams this year (with JV1 and JV2) and it creates a little bit more flexibility,” Hanke said. “It’s a luxury for sure, it’s something you don’t take for granted.

“I think guys stepped up in some bigger roles than we probably anticipated going into the beginning of the season, so it was nice to see some of those younger guys hold their ground for the situation they were put in.”

Stalzer, the lone junior in Friday’s starting lineup, concurred.

“A lot of these young guys played last year or for two years, so they knew the expectation going in that we don’t really have that many old guys,” Stalzer said. “A lot of them had to step up like Garrett and Aiden, so they also played the role of being one of the older guys.”