Comeback kids: Another rally, another victory for the Palmer Moose

HOUSTON — Another rally, another win for the Palmer Moose.

Palmer used six runs during the final three innings to erase an early 6-1 deficit and score a 10-6 come-from-behind victory over the Houston Hawks at Houston High’s Kramer Field on Thursday.

Palmer earned the win in familiar fashion. It’s the second time in less than a week the Moose rallied to beat Houston. The Hawks led Palmer 7-1 on Monday before the Moose came back to win 10-8. Palmer (3-1) also trailed Wasilla 10-3 last week before coming back to win 12-11.

“We’ve played tough,” Palmer head coach David Combs said. “We haven’t given up when we’ve gotten down.”

Palmer scored its go-ahead run in the sixth inning. Luke Heun led off the inning with a triple and stole home to tie the score at 6. Combs said he called for the squeeze play, but even though the Moose failed to put down the bunt, Heun stormed for home.

“I always tell him it’s first movement to steal the base. As soon as he saw him move, he took off,” Combs said.

The Hawks weren’t able to track Heun, and the junior scored.

Elias Stratton followed Heun with a walk, and later scored the go-ahead run later in the inning when Gus Topp reached on a fielder’s choice.

The Moose were able to pad their lead with three runs in the seventh. Palmer put its first three batters of the inning on base. Cameron Christiansen led off the inning with a single and Tyler Van Ausdal followed with a walk. Heun put down a bunt along the first-base line.

Christiansen scored on an error to give the Moose an 8-6 lead. Stratton drove in Van Ausdal on a ground out, and Heun scored on David Media’s sacrifice fly to left field.

Heun pitched six innings to earn the win for the Moose. Christiansen retired three of the four hitters he faced to close the game in the seventh.

“(Luke) pitched a heck of a game. He probably could have gone another inning if we hadn’t made him throw that extra 20 pitches in that other inning,” Combs said.

That inning was the second, when six consecutive Houston hitters reached and scored to give the Hawks the 6-1 lead. All of the runs came with two outs.

Houston took advantage of three Palmer errors in the inning. Beau Frank sparked the Hawks when he reached on an error with two outs. Devan Elson followed with a single to left field and Jaden Sears reached on another error to load the bases.

With the bases loaded, Greg Schmidt drew a walk to drive Frank home and tie the game at 1.

Later in the inning, Russ Ruta reached on another Palmer error and Scott Kramer drove doubled to right center field to drive in two more runs.

Kramer scored on a Mitchell Ruta single to center field.

Palmer had taken the 1-0 lead when Adam Taylor was hit by a pitch and scored on a Houston error.

Colony 6, Wasilla 4

WASILLA — Colony scored a pair of runs in the ninth to post a 6-4 extra-innings win over Wasilla at Carl Fritzler Field Monday in Wasilla.

The Warriors forced extra innings with two runs in the seventh.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him at twitter.com/matsu_sports.