Dimond ends Road Warriors’ American Legion season

ANCHORAGE — Sometimes the ball simply doesn’t bounce your way.

The Alaska Road Warriors hit the ball hard and played errorless defense, but couldn’t catch a break. Ultimately, the Wasilla-based American Legion team couldn’t move forward.

Dimond ended the Valley team’s 2011 season with a 9-1 win over the Road Warriors during the Alaska American Legion State Championships at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage on Wednesday.

“We actually played a good game. We had no errors, hit the ball hard, but couldn’t get a break in the game,” Road Warriors head coach Myrl Thompson said.

Dimond moved into the tournament’s final three with the victory. On Thursday, the Lynx eliminated Fairbanks to set up a state title bout with South Anchorage today in Anchorage.

Those teams are the two squads that beat the Warriors in the tourney. The Wasilla squad sandwiched wins over Bartlett, Chugiak and Service between the losses to South Anchorage and Dimond to finish 3-2 in tourney play and notch fourth place in the state event.

“We played good as a team,” Thompson said. “It would have been nice to win one or two more, but there’s always next year, and we have a good group coming back.”

Thompson said he believes his players proved the Warriors are one of about five teams with the ability to go far in this tournament.

“It’s definitely five teams deep,” Thompson said. “We finished fourth. (Fifth-place) Service is a legit team too. There are definitely five teams above the rest.”

Dimond used a five-run third to get past the Warriors Wednesday.

“Dimond is a tough team, a very good hitting team,” Thompson said.

Dylan Lauwers sparked the Lynx with a leadoff single in the inning. After Dimond loaded the bases with two outs, Vince Partush doubled to drive in three runs.

Austin Brown led the Lynx with three hits and three RBI. Partush finished with a hit and three runs driven in.

The Road Warriors settled for only six hits in the loss.

“We hit the ball hard, but hit line drives into people’s gloves,” Thompson said. “They were just the opposite.”

Taylor Palmer led the Warriors with two hits. Brody Coleman, Russ Ruta, Scott Kramer and Jacob Butcher had one hit each.

Damon Hammer scored Alaska’s lone run on a wild pitch in the fourth inning.

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