Cougars ace strikes out 13 Road Warriors in 2-hit gem

WASILLA — Sometimes the measure of a good team isn’t in how many games it wins, but how it responds to losing.

That’s an axiom the Alaska Road Warriors only had to test once heading into this weekend’s annual Todd Ryan Tournament at Lou McManus Field in Wasilla. After beating Bartlett in a league game to open tourney play Thursday, the Road Warriors did something they haven’t done all season — lost two in a row.

The first loss came Friday to a tenacious Service team led by ace starter Zach Ferutheil. Ferutheil cooled off Wasilla’s hot bats, throwing a complete-game 2-hitter, and striking out 13 along the way in a 3-1 Service win.

“The kid pitched a great game, flat out,” said Road Warriors head coach Myrl Thompson after the game. “He throws hard, and this umpire, his strike zone was made for this kid, but I don’t want to blame the umpire. He pitched a whale of a game.”

The hard-throwing right-hander had a no-hitter going through 5 2/3 innings when Cooper Hanson finally broke up the no-no with a hard single to right field. Then trailing Service 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Jonathan Boyer cracked a double to the center field wall that scored Mitchell Chauvin, who reached base on a fielder’s choice. That cut the Service lead to 2-1 and seemed to swing momentum the Road Warriors’ way.

But Service rallied with two outs in the seventh inning. Brandon Saleumoto doubled and scored off a single from Zach Cuddihy.

“We had a couple of rallies shot out from under us, but that’s our problem, not theirs,” Thompson said, adding he felt Wasilla starter Jacob Butcher “threw well enough to win. We made some mistakes early and they scored a couple runs off our mistakes.”

Service broke the ice early, scoring a run each in the second and third innings. That 2-0 lead would hold into the sixth and would eventually prove to be enough to top the first-place Road Warriors.

The Road Warriors didn’t have much time to dwell on the loss to Service, as they moved on in the tournament bracket Saturday to play a team from Napoleon, Ohio, a powerhouse program that won the Todd Ryan in 2011. And the power was on display, downing the host Road Warriors 16-1.

“We just didn’t have a very good game,” Thompson said. “Our pitchers couldn’t find the strike zone and we let a lot of guys get on base, then they scattered in some decent hits. We’re definitely slumping a little bit here. Let’s hope that’s our (full) slump.”

The Road Warriors will finish off the tournament at noon today in a rematch with Bartlett.

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.

Todd Ryan Tournament

Lou McManus Field, Wasilla

Thursday games

Eagle River 13, Dimond 9

Wasilla 5, Bartlett 3

Friday games

Napoleon, Ohio 6, Eagle River 1

Napoleon, Ohio 7, Dimond 2

Service 3, Wasilla 1

Service 8, Bartlett 5

Saturday games

Dimond 9, Bartlett 1

Napoleon, Ohio 16, Wasilla 1

Service 17, Eagle River 7

Sunday games

Wasilla vs. Bartlett, noon

Dimond vs. Eagle River, 3 p.m.

Napoleon, Ohio vs. Service, 6 p.m.