American Legion: Road Warriors ready for state tourney

July 31, 2007

By MATT TUNSETH/ Frontiersman

WASILLA - Fresh off one of its best regular seasons in club history, the Alaska Road Warriors American Legion baseball team is in position to make a good run at this weekend's state tournament. But with a difficult opening-round match-up - and a potential quarterfinal tilt with the state's top seed - looming, the road to a title won't be an easy one.

The Wasilla-based team won 20 games and finished with a 13-7 record in district play this season, good enough for a No. 4 seed in the 11-team state tournament, which gets underway Thursday in Anchorage. By virtue of their high seed, the Road Warriors won't play until 9 a.m. Friday at Mulcahy Stadium, where they'll likely face the Service Cougars, a team Alaska beat twice this season.

Road Warriors coach Steve Mossburgh said the 12-8 Cougars won't be an easy challenge for his club, and noted Service is coming off a season-ending sweep of Kenai.

&#8220They have been playing a lot better,” Mossburgh said. &#8220It will be a good game.”

Should Alaska get past Service, they'll likely run into the Chugiak Mustangs in the second round - not an easy proposition. Alaska lost its final regular season game to Chugiak 10-0, getting shut down for the second time this season by Mustang ace Connor Spink on Saturday.

However, Wasilla did defeat the Mustangs in a non-league game earlier this season, and Mossburgh said he saw some signs of life by his team against Spink in Saturday's contest.

&#8220We didn't light him but, but they were making a lot better contact,” he said of his team, which managed three hits off the 19-year-old University of Portland hurler.

Hitting hasn't been much of an issue this season for the Road Warriors, who feature a deep lineup of quality batters from top to bottom.

Where Alaska has struggled this season, has been on defense, where costly errors have often cropped up at the worst possible moment. Mossburgh said his focus in the week leading up to state will be on shoring up the team's fundamentals in the field in order to avoid any lapses that could hamper the Road Warriors.

&#8220Our overall defense needs a little bit of a tune-up,” Mossburgh said.

Mossburgh said the team is relatively healthy, and he expects all the team's regulars to be in the lineup when the tournament begins. He hasn't yet decided on a pitching rotation, but said his pitching staff - which isn't deep - will need plenty of support defensively in order to stay sharp through the tourney.

&#8220We have to come out and play good defense,” he said.

If the team can do that, Mossburgh said he believes the Road Warriors have a chance to make some noise in Anchorage.

&#8220If they play like they can play I feel we could do all right,” he said. &#8220This is one of the best teams we've had in a while.”

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com