Hess, Knights send Bucs home

PALMER --With the Valdez High School graduation on Saturday, and four of the 11 players on the Buccaneer roster part of the graduation ceremony, the Buc coaching staff was faced with an unenviable predicament on Thursday. Even a first-round win over Colony meant the end of their

season.

Win or lose, Valdez was done after the first round of the Region III baseball tournament.

"We knew at the beginning of the season we had the conflict," Valdez coach Bob Smith said.

Joe Hess and the Colony Knights took all the guesswork out of the situation, and sent the Bucs home with a 9-3 loss.

Hess was nearly perfect on the mound, flirting with a no-hitter for the first six innings of the game, and Mike Bodzoing singled and tripled to lead the Knights at the plate.

Hess was unstoppable in the first six innings, retiring the first 10 and 18 of the first 19 hitters he faced. Matt Craig was the first Buc to reach safely, drawing a six-pitch walk in the top of the fourth inning. Hess retired another nine consecutive Valdez hitters before Craig reached again on a single to left field in the seventh inning.

The Buccaneers chased Hess out of the contest with three consecutive hits in the top of the seventh. Kris Craig followed with a single and Curtis Doughman notched a two-run triple to spoil Hess' shutout bid.

Colony jumped to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. Kyle Coffman opened the scoring in the first inning with a run-scoring sacrifice fly. Joe Degroff added a run scoring single and Bodzoing followed with a triple.

Degroff led the Knights with a pair of RBIs in the contest. Bodzoing, Brad Cuculla, Dustin Stanford and Logan Tuttle also drove in runs.

In other tournament action, Wasilla pounded Kenny Lake 18-0 in the tourney opener. Kodiak also advanced to the semifinals with a win over Houston.

Results of the final two rounds of action will be available in the Tuesday edition of the Frontiersman.