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Unfortunately, it was Ankeny touching home plate in a game that sent the Warriors to the sidelines in their first-ever tournament appearance with the state's largest schools.
It was a disappointing end to a 28-9 season for Waukee, which finished second in last year's 3A State Tournament.
"We've built a good program here over the years. We expected to go back to Fort Dodge again this year," Waukee Coach Jen Slauson said matter-of-factly. "We had everybody back from last year's team and we expected to be playing Johnston in this year's regional final."
Instead, Ankeny carried a 21-29 record into Tuesday night's regional final against the No. 9-ranked Dragons.
Those 29 losses included a 5-3 setback to Waukee in the final regular season game this year.
Ankeny scored its only run Saturday with two outs in the fourth inning.
Kelsey Nurnberg singled with one out and was forced at second on a ground-out by Christina Lemon. A single by Lori Evans put runners on first and second and Lemon scored on a single by first baseman Hilary Fort.
"Ankeny hit a couple of balls just out of our reach," Slauson said. "That was just one of those things. Sometimes it comes down to a matter of inches and it just wasn't meant for us to hold them scoreless."
While the clutch hit fell for the Hawks, it didn't for Waukee.
"We had runners on base in five of the seven innings," Slauson said. "We just couldn't come up with the big hit when we needed it."
Slauson blamed Waukee's inability to convert scoring opportunities on the Warriors' being too "defensive" at bat.
"Nurnberg is a strikeout pitcher - she was averaging more than 10 a game," Slauson said. "Quite honestly, our hitters were too concerned about not striking out. They were just trying to make contact instead of trying to hit the ball.
"We just never got going."
The Warriors had five hits, but Slauson said the team "never hit the ball hard.
"We only hit two balls to the outfield the whole game," she said. "We were never much of an offensive threat the whole game."
Still, Waukee had its opportunities.
The Warriors had runners on third base in each of the final two innings.
In the sixth, Brittany Schmacker singled and moved to second on a sacrifice by Chelle Phillips. Schmacker stole third with two outs, but was stranded there when the next hitter grounded out.
In the seventh, Staci Gillum walked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ashley Wilder, then moved to third on a ground out by pitcher Liz Dornfeld. A strikeout - one of only five in the game - ended the contest.
A single by Phillips and an Ankeny error put Warrior runners on first and second in the first inning with two outs, but another ground out ended that threat, too.
Now, the Warriors have a year to re-group, but you can't blame Slauson for already looking ahead.
Two seniors - pitcher Dornfeld and rightfielder Wilder - will graduate, but the rest of the team returns intact.
"Liz will be tough to replace," Slauson said. "Those are some big shoes to fill. She's won 90 percent of our games the past two years, but we've got a couple of pretty good pitchers coming back, too."
Sophomore Chelle Phillips compiled a 5-0 record this year and freshman Ivory Becker was 3-0 on the mound.
Slauson summed everything up this way:
"We don't expect to lose. We've built a program that we expect to have 30 wins a year and we'll think about that during the off-season."
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