7th heaven for Road Warriors

WASILLA — Any team looking to hand the Alaska Road Warriors their first loss of the summer must play mistake-free baseball, and those that don’t will struggle. That’s a lesson East Anchorage learned the hard way Sunday at Chad Box Field as the Road Warriors took advantage of eight East errors to thump the Thunderbirds 16-3. The win pushes Wasilla to 7-0 on the season and extends a run of efficient play, said head coach Myrl Thompson.

“Everybody’s just playing pretty well,” he said.

On Sunday, that meant taking advantage of East errors early and often. The Road Warriors led 3-0 after the first inning of play, 5-0 after the second and 6-0 after the top of the third. East managed a short rally in the bottom of the third, scoring three runs, but the Road Warriors shut the door, plating seven more runs in the next two innings.

Getting and holding early leads has been key to the team’s success so far, Thompson said.

“It’s less gray hair for me, that’s for sure,” he said. “It’s nice playing with the lead, then you have all kinds of options. You don’t have to overwork pitchers and guys who don’t get to start get game experience, so that helps you at the end of the year.”

Tyler Hansen earned the win on the mound for Alaska. His only hiccup was that third inning, where he gave up three earned runs. But 16 runs of offensive support is more than enough for just about any situation, Thompson said.

The success starting this 2013 season is the culmination of many years of working within the program, Thompson said. Most of the players on this year’s squad have played together in the American Legion system for four or five seasons, he said. In fact, the Road Warriors’ A team, the junior varsity, is also undefeated so far.

“It’s been that way for awhile now,” Thompson said. “These kids playing for me now played on that A team four or five years ago. Those guys are about 119-4 or something like that over the last five years. It’s just ridiculous. It’s like having your own farm system.”

Along with strong starting pitching has been the solid hitting of a Road Warriors lineup that doesn’t allow opposing teams much relief, Thompson said.

“We have Morgan McJimsey who’s batting lights out and Jonathan Boyer has been pretty dominating pitching. And Ben Roth at third has been great and Jake Butcher has been hitting lights out, too. It’s a pretty tough lineup to get through and the starters have been especially tough.”

Hansen helped his cause Sunday, batting 2-for-2 with an RBI and three runs scored. McJimsey also went 2-for-2 at the plate with an RBI. Butcher officially was 0-for-1 batting, but got on base and scored three runs.

The early success can also pay dividends later in the season, Thompson said. That’s because the team now is able to play the entire roster and get everyone, not just starters, some playing time. It also allows the pitching staff to rotate more and keep pitch counts down.

“We’re not having to use a lot of arms yet,” he said. “Everybody’s keeping their pitch counts low, which should help us down the stretch.”

After Sunday’s game, Thompson said he gave the team Monday off as a reward. An American Legion coaching clinic is scheduled for much of this week, which means the Road Warriors won’t be back on the diamond until Friday, when they host Chugiak at 6:30 p.m., at McManus Fields in Wasilla. Chugiak sits atop the current Alaska Legion Baseball standings at 10-3 overall, 7-3 in conference, tied with South and three standings points ahead of Wasilla at 7-0.

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or

greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.