Colony and Wasilla to play for region baseball crown

SOLDOTNA — A pair of Valley teams will play for a conference title, and two others are still in the hunt for a potential trip to the state tournament.

Wasilla and Colony both advanced to the championship game with a pair of wins Thursday during the first day of the Southcentral Conference Championships in Soldotna.

The Warriors beat Valley rival Houston 11-7 in the semifinals to score its spot in the region title game. Colony, the defending conference champion, set up an all-Valley final with an 8-1 win over Kodiak.

Palmer suffered a first-round loss to Kodiak 15-2, and will have to play through the loser’s bracket for a spot to the state tournament. Houston finished with a 6-5 extra-innings win over Homer in the first round, but will also have to fight through the loser’s bracket after the semifinal loss to the Warriors.

The conference champion, which will be crowned Friday night, earns the first automatic bid to the state tournament. The champion of the consolation bracket gets the Southcentral’s second bid.

Day 2 of the tournament will feature five games. Soldotna meets Homer, and Palmer plays Kenai, both at 10 a.m., in the first consolation games of the day. Kodiak will face the Soldotna/Homer winner at 3 p.m. Houston meets the Palmer/Kenai winner, also at 3.

Colony and Wasilla will play for the title Friday at 7 p.m.

Colony 8, Kodiak 1

Dalton McHugill pitched a complete game to lead Colony to an 8-1 semifinal win over Kodiak.

McHugill scattered seven hits over seven innings, fanned seven and walked only one.

McHugill was also one of five Knights to finish with two hits each. Matt Palmer led Colony at the plate, finishing 2 for 4 with four RBI.

Colony’s big inning came in the third, with five runs. That broke a 1-1 tie.

Wasilla 11, Houston 7

The Warriors got the best of this all-Valley bout with an 11-7 victory over the Hawks. Results were not available.

Colony 12, Kenai 7

Matt Palmer finished 4 for 4 with three home runs, four runs and four RBIs to lead the Knights, the No. 2 seed from the Northern Division, past the Kardinals, No. 3 from the south.

Palmer connected to center field in the first inning, to right field in the third inning and to left field in the fifth inning.

The outfield fence is only 300 feet from the plate in all the fields. Palmer said he knew his shot in the first was out, but wasn’t sure about the other two, which were fly balls that just carried over the fence.

Still, with one career home run coming into the game, the junior, who got into the weight room in the offseason to increase his power, wasn’t complaining.

“I was pleased with that because I’ve been working on taking the ball where it’s pitched,” Palmer said of hitting taters to each field.

Colony starter Ben Ross was dominant early in the game and carried a no-hitter and a 6-0 lead into the fifth inning.

Dalton McHugill, who finished 2 for 3 with two runs, also went yard in the first five innings to give Colony four round-trippers on the day.

But Kenai began to fight back in the fifth inning, when Ellery Steffensen had an infield single and Dallas Pierren followed by smashing a two-run home run to center.

“None of those would have been home runs in most ballparks — in any ballpark,” Kenai coach John Kennedy said. “Dallas was actually fooled on his, but he’s such a good hitter that he was able to hit it off his front foot.”

Colony jumped back to a 9-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth with three runs, but just one was earned because Kenai dropped two pop-ups in the inning.

“It’s a much different ballgame if we can catch fly balls,” Kennedy said. “That’s been our Achilles’ heel all year.”

In the top of the sixth, the Kards kept after a fatiguing Ross. Kenai loaded the bases with no outs on a walk and two hits, then Isaac Mese walked to score a run and Paul Steffensen doubled to score two more and make it 9-5.

Ross was taken out at that point, having pitched 5 1-3 innings and giving up five runs on five hits while walking five and striking out 11.

“I think he got tired and started to change his stuff and it messed up his mechanics,” Colony coach Jordan Chadwell said. “The first five innings he was really good.”

Logan Sanders came in for Ross and got out of the inning with no further damage.

But in the bottom of the sixth, fly balls came back to hurt the Kards again. With two outs and runners on first and second, Layne Cottingham hit a fly ball to center field that Isaac Mese couldn’t corral. The ball slipped over the wall for a four-base error.

The Kards tried to rally in the seventh as Sanders walked four and committed two errors, but the rally came up short.

In all, Colony pitchers walked nine and hit one.

“We can’t give teams that many opportunities,” Chadwell said.

Miles Jones started for Kenai and gave up five runs on eight hits in three innings. Freshman Zack Selinger then pitched one inning and gave up just a home run that was a fly ball that slipped over the fence.

“I’m excited by the way he pitched as a freshman in the region tournament,” Kennedy said.

Dallas Pierren pitched the final two innings and gave up four hits and six runs, only one earned.

Ross finished 2 for 3 with a run and an RBI, Sanders was 2 for 3 with two runs, and Cottingham scored three times for the Knights.

Sam Combs and Nate O’Lena each scored a pair of runs for the Kards.

Wasilla 5, Soldotna 4

The Wasilla Warriors squashed a late Soldotna Stars rally, and held on for a 5-4 win during the quarterfinal round of the Southcentral Conference Championships Thursday morning in Soldotna.

Wasilla led 5-2 heading into the bottom half of the final inning. Klayton Justice and Josiah Covey each scored runs in the seventh to cut Wasilla’s lead to one.

Trailing by only one, Soldotna loaded the bases. The Warriors managed to retire two of Soldotna’s final three hitters in the inning to get out of the jam.

Blake Marks gave the Warriors the early lead, with a single and run scored in the second inning. After Soldotna took a lead in the fourth inning with a pair of runs, Wasilla’s Cooper Hanson reached on an error and scored to tie the game.

Jeffrey Forster, Tyler Hansen and Marks each scored runs in the fifth for WHS. Foster and Marks both drew a walk to get on base. Hansen was hit by a pitch.

Wasilla advanced to the conference semifinals with the win.

Houston 6, Homer 5

Cody Buntin scored the game-winning run in the top of the eighth to lead Houston to a 6-5 extra-innings win over Homer during the first round of the Southcentral Conference Championships in Soldotna Thursday morning.

The Buntin run capped a wild final stretch of the game.

Houston led 4-3 heading into the final inning. Devin Elson belted a home run in the top of the seventh to give the Hawks a 5-3 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, Homer hit back-to-back home runs to tie the score at 5. Tommy Bowe provided the game-tying homer.

Elson led the Hawks, going 3 for 4, with a single, double and home run. Lane Taylor also scored a run for the Hawks.

Kodiak 15, Palmer 2

Kodiak opened its conference tournament with a 15-2 rout of Palmer.

Ryan Perkins and Daniel Jackson scored the Palmer runs.

Perkins and Wyatt McKechnie had two singles each for Palmer.

Palmer dropped into the loser’s bracket with the loss, and will play Kenai Friday at 10 a.m. The Moose are still in play for a berth to the state tournament.