Colony, Palmer fall during final day of state baseball tourney

PALMER — Colony and Palmer both fell on the final day of the ASAA/First National Bank State Baseball Championships Saturday at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.

Ketchikan beat Colony 7-1 in the third-place game. Chugiak got past Palmer 14-4 in the fourth-place match.

Cody Kemble pitched a complete game to lead the Kings past the Knights. Kemble scattered four hits over seven innings, fanned 10 and walked only one batter. Zach Satterly scored Colony’s lone run in the sixth inning. Carson McLaughlin collected two of Colony’s four hits in the loss.

Colony opened with a walk-off win over Chugiak in the first round, scoring its first quarterfinal victory since 2014, and suffered a loss to Juneau-Douglas in the semifinals.

In the fourth-place game, Chugiak led 5-1 midway-through, but blew the game open late. The Mustangs scored four runs in both the fifth and the seventh. Alasdair McKechnie and Anthony Jones led the Moose with two hits each in the loss. McKechnie was also one of four different Palmer players to drive in a run. Four different players scored a run.

Palmer, playing in its first state tournament in school history, opened the weekend with a loss to South Anchorage in the quarterfinals. The Moose bounced back and earned their first state tourney win in school history, with a 4-3 victory over West Valley.

Colony’s Kolten Ketchum and Palmer’s Cade Holland were named to the all-tournament team. Juneau-Douglas earned the title, beating South 3-2 in the championship game.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.