A bit short

PALMER — Throughout the 2009 regular season, the Colony Knights consistently showed the ability to come from behind.

But on Thursday, the Knights came up a little short.

Despite a late Colony rally, Chugiak held on to secure a 7-3 win over the Knights during the nightcap of the first round of the ASAA/First National Bank State Baseball Championships at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

“Unfortunately, we ran out of time,” Colony head coach Jamie Mayo said.

After posting just a hit during the first four innings, Colony did put together three runs on six hits during the final three. But overall, Mayo said, even though the Knights could erase deficits with ease during the regular season, Colony can’t afford to fall behind when playing one of the top eight teams in the state.

“We can’t put ourselves in that position in this tournament,” Mayo, Colony’s 16-year head coach, said.

Senior Rhowe Stefanski collected Colony’s lone hit of the first four innings — a single to right field in the first — and later put the Knights on the scoreboard when he drove in junior J.D. Mayo with a fielder’s choice in the fifth inning.

Stefanski would later score, cutting Chugiak’s lead to 7-2, when junior Colter Peterson doubled off the right center field wall. Mayo singled and stole second base to put himself in position to score.

“I’ve got to give these guys a lot of credit, they didn’t give up,” Jamie Mayo said of his players, who found themselves down 7-0 in the fifth. “It’d be easy for a lot of teams to roll over.”

Senior Steve Sinnett reached on an infield single and scored on a Mike Wagner single to center field in the sixth inning for Colony.

Peterson pitched a complete game, working a solid seven innings in the loss. The right-hander allowed 13 hits and fanned six batters in seven innings. Even though Chugiak is credited for 13 hits and seven runs on the score sheet, Mayo felt his starter was hurt by a few uncharacteristic Colony errors.

“The bottom line is, when Colter’s throwing strikes, we can’t give teams extra outs,” Mayo said.

Chugiak had a little help from three Colony errors and Mother Nature during a two-run first inning.

Cameron Fritz and Jacob Brownlee both reached on Colony errors in the first, and Tim McCollum scored on another error. McCollum posted Chugiak’s first hit of the evening, a pop fly that carried from the right side of the infield into the right field grass.

Chugiak scored two more runs in the third. Fritz reached on an infield single and McCollum singled to center. Both were moved closer to home with a Tyler Belk sacrifice bunt. Brownlee drove in Fritz with a grounder to the right side of the infield, and McCollum crossed the plate thanks to a Casey Volk single to left.

Belk gave Chugiak the 6-0 lead with a two-run double to deep left center field in the fourth inning.

With the loss, Colony now moves backward in the bracket and will face the Lathrop Malemutes today at 2 p.m. at Hermon Brothers. Sitka beat Lathrop 7-3 in the first round.

In other state baseball action, Ketchikan edged West Valley 2-1 during the first game of the day and Dimond routed Homer 10-1. Ketchikan and Dimond will meet in the first semifinal today at 4:30 p.m. and Sitka, the three-time state champs from 2005-07, will face Chugiak at 7 p.m.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.