It was old-school softball as Ankeny Centennial took out No. 3 seed Iowa City High, 2-0, in a Class 5A quarterfinal on the Iowa Central Field Tuesday night.

The Jaguars (32-9) manufactured runs in the first and third innings, and rode the strong pitching of senior Sam Klug into the semifinals on Wednesday, where they will face Pleasant Valley at 7 p.m. on the Kruger Seeds Field.

Pleasant Valley played a completely opposite type of game Tuesday, beating Southeast Polk 11-10 in the quarterfinals.

Klug struck out nine and scattered three hits. The Jaguars managed just two hits off a pair of City High pitchers, but were able to generate just enough offense.

“This feels pretty good,” said Klug, who helped the Jaguars to a third-place finish in 5A last year. “We came into it knowing we would need to play our best game. We went out and played it.”

The Jaguars opened the scoring in the top of the first. Addi Starr drew a lead-off walk and Anna Christiansen followed with a single.

After a sacrifice bunt moved the runners up a base, Ella Schulz lifted a sacrifice fly to left to score Starr.

The Jaguars added an insurance run in the third inning without even recording a hit.

Lauren Solis drew a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. After another sacrifice bunt moved her to third she was able to score on a wild pitch.

That was more than enough for Klug, though the Little Hawks (33-8) had their chances.

Carey Koenig tripled with two outs in the bottom of the first, but she was stranded. Ella Cook smacked a double in the fourth, but a strikeout ended the frame.

Klug said the Jaguars have been a slow starters this year, so the early scoring gave her some confidence.

“It felt good to get started early. I was just trying to hit my spots and left my defense make plays,” she said. “That early lead took the pressure off.”

Centennial Coach Brett Delany agreed it was a different vibe for the Jaguars, scoring early, “but I’ll take a 2-0 game like that any day.

“We did the little things right and that’s all it takes,” he added. “We had talked this week about getting some runs early. We came into this game focused.”

Centennial dropped a 5-3 decision to Fort Dodge in last year’s semifinals before beating Muscatine 10-0 in the third-place game. Klug said that loss has been a motivator this year.

“We would definitely like the opportunity to play them here again,” said Klug.

The Jaguars went 1-3 against the Dodgers in the regular season, part of a schedule that Delany said has his team ready for this week.

“The CIML is a tough double header night in and night out. We played Ankeny four times, we played Fort Dodge four times, we played Valley four times,” he said. “I think we had half the field in Class 5A, 4A and 3A here on our schedule.”

City High’s Cook took the loss, allowing just two hits in three innings of work. Ayana Lindsey worked the final four innings for the Little Hawks.

City High plays Southeast Polk in a 5A consolation game today at 1:30 p.m.

ANKENY CENTENNIAL 2, IOWA CITY HIGH 0

Centennial 101 000 0 — 2 2 0

City High 000 000 0 — 0 3 0

2B–Ella Cook. 3B–Carey Koenig. SB–Mackenzie James, Ayana Lindsey.