American Legion: Alaska's bats thump Thunderbirds

July 22, 2007

By Jeremiah Bartz/ Frontiersman

WASILLA - McManus Field is not your typical American Legion baseball facility. There's a lot of room to roam in the spacious outfield. And on Saturday, the Alaska Road Warriors took advantage of that extra space.

The Road Warriors collected nine extra base hits and cruised to a 16-5 win over East.

The Wasilla-based team consistently placed hits between the East outfielders, and scored in six of the game's seven innings in the win. The Road Warriors recorded four triples and five doubles.

&#8220I don't think (East) is used to this. They are used to playing on those smaller Anchorage fields,” Alaska catcher Wes Smith said.

Smith tripled twice in the win. Both of hits rolled to the right center field wall.

In the sixth, Smith led off the inning with a triple and in the seventh he drove in a pair of runs with a bases-clearing triple.

Josh Boring and Chris Bydlon also tripled in the game.

&#8220Once you get it into the gap, and the ball rolls and hits the fence, you know you're going to get a triple,” Smith said.

Alaska head coach Steve Mossburgh said the team has worked on driving the outside pitch to the opposite field in practice, something the Road Warriors did consistently against the Thunderbirds.

&#8220They hit the ball well today,” Mossburgh said. &#8220They were really using the bats.”

After scoring a pair of runs in the first inning, the Road Warriors added four in the third to jump out to the early and comfortable lead.

Chris Breck, Corey Cowgill and Smith posted consecutive singles in the inning, and Carl Brent, Cole Smith, Ben Briceland and Kevin Comerate each drove in runs in the inning.

The Warriors added six runs in the seventh inning.

Boring, Brent and Smith each doubled in the inning. Breck, Bydlon and Rob Fitch singled.

While the Road Warriors surpassed the 20-hit mark in the win. Smith, Alaska's starter on the mound, held the Thunderbirds to just four hits and one unearned run in the first six innings.

East was able to add on four late runs in the seventh.

The Road Warriors are entering the final stretch of the 2007 season. The squad hosts Bartlett today at 4 p.m., and has only three games left on the regular season schedule.

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