Colony tops Kodiak to claim conference title

WASILLA — Locked in a 1-1 tie deep into the game, the Colony Knights were still waiting for that big inning. After seeing his team score a combined 22 runs during the first two rounds of the conference tournament, Colony head coach Jordan Chadwell probably figured that offensive outburst had to be coming.

And finally, it did.

Colony scored eight runs in the bottom of the sixth and batted around in the inning to firmly grab a hold of a 9-1 victory over Kodiak during the Southcentral Conference Championships title game Friday night at Wasilla High School.

“I feel confident we can hit one through nine,” Chadwell said after his team accepted the conference championship plaque. “Anybody who’s at the plate, we feel like we have a chance to win and do some damage.”

Senior Jonathon Boyer singled and doubled during the inning. But more importantly, Boyer sparked the Knights scoring the go-ahead run with one out in the inning. Boyer led off the inning with a single and stole second base. Two batters later, Jacob Butcher hit the ball to the right side of the infield. The Kodiak infielder misplayed the ball, and Boyer was able to score from second to give the Knights the 2-1 lead.

“It’s just simple baserunning,” Boyer said. “Ball to the right side, go to third. I read the guy bobbled it and took home.”

Kodiak committed a pair of costly errors in the inning, but Colony also made consistent contact at the plate, finishing the sixth with six of its 10 hits in the game.

“We finally started to have discipline at the plate, pick out our pitches and hit the ball solid,” Chadwell said.

Butcher and Shane Andrews both reached on errors and scored with one out in the inning.

After Colony was tagged with its second out, Matt Palmer walked and Zane Mileur legged out an infield single.

Colony’s leadoff hitter, Logan Sanders, followed with a single to drive in a run. With two outs and two on, Morgan McJimsey smacked a ball deep over the left field fence to clear the bases and give the Knights a lopsided lead.

Ben Ross also singled and drove in a run in the inning.

“Toward the end, we started seeing the ball a lot better and put the ball in play,” Boyer said.

Colony sophomore Dalton McHugill pitched a complete game to earn the victory. McHugill scattered four hits over seven innings, fanned eight and walked only three.

“Dalton threw great, he’s been great for us all season,” Chadwell said.

Colony took an early lead in the bottom of the second with a Ryan Judd RBI single. Kodiak tied the score in the top of the fourth when Sam Schlauger knocked in Austin Frick.

Eight of the nine hitters in the Colony lineup finished with at least one hit. Eight of the nine also scored at least one run. Boyer and Ross led the Knights with two hits each. Boyer scored a team-best two runs.

Colony earned a state tournament berth with the win and will begin state tournament play Thursday at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage. See the Tuesday paper for the complete bracket.

Colony moved into the title game with a 10-6 extra innings win over Kenai Thursday. Senior Jacob Butcher used a 10-inning, 142-pitch performance to help the Knights score the win. Butcher fanned 11 in the victory. He threw 96 strikes.

Boyer pitched the final inning to earn the save. Sanders, Ross and McJimsey each had three hits for Colony. The Knights also had five different players with two hits.

McJimsey and Kevin Hale drove in two runs each.

Colony started its tournament with a 12-8 win over Soldotna in the quarterfinals.

McHughill and Palmer finished with two hits each. McJimsey drove in four runs, and Palmer added 3 RBI.

Wasilla and Palmer both finished 1-2 in the tournament. Both the Warriors and the Moose started their tournaments with quarterfinal losses. Homer beat Wasilla 7-2 in the first round, and Kenai beat Palmer 10-4.

Both teams also bounced back in elimination action. The Moose eliminated Soldotna with a 21-15 victory. Wasilla stayed alive by blanking Houston 6-0 Friday.

Later Friday, Homer eliminated Palmer with a 12-9 win. Kenai edged Wasilla 11-10.

In the final game of the consolation bracket, Kodiak beat Kenai 10-7. Kodiak earned the conference’s second berth to state with the victory over the Kardinals.