Legion baseball: Warriors smack South around

WASILLA — Despite his team’s 5-2 mark and second-place conference standing, Steve Mossburgh is still waiting for his Alaska Road Warriors squad to play to its full potential.

But judging by Alaska’s 9-2 win over South Anchorage on Wednesday at Lou McManus Field, if Mossburgh’s bunch does put everything together, American Legion squads from across the 49th state should look out.

The Road Warriors, tested in the first inning, recovered to score nine unanswered runs and earned a win over a squad that had won five straight to start the 2008 American Legion season.

In the win, the Warriors’ bats were booming — Alaska scored nine runs despite leaving nine more runners on base. That was plenty for Starter Colter Peterson, who pitched seven strong innings to pick up the win as the Road Warriors’ defense recovered from two early errors.

“Today we hit, the pitching was excellent and the defense was so-so,” Mossburgh said after the win.

So far this season, Mossburgh said his team usually struggles in one of the three key areas. The Warriors may be hot at the plate, but have trouble on the mound or in the field. There have also been times where Alaska has had a below-average day pitching, but a super day at the plate.

“We need to work on putting those three pieces together,” Mossburgh said. “Put it together and no team in the state can beat us.”

Third baseman Mike Dotson led the Warriors with a pair of doubles and three RBI. The former Palmer High School standout knocked both his base hits off the outfield wall, the first of which cleared the bases in the third inning.

Dotson’s double to deep right center field allowed Jaron Christensen, Kody Ziter and Peterson to score, and gave the Warriors the 4-2 advantage.

Dotson also doubled and later scored on a Rhowe Stefanski groundout in the sixth inning.

Christensen drove in a pair of runs for an Alaska squad that also saw Ziter, Wes Smith and Kyle Bovy drive in runs.

Smith scored a pair of runs to lead the Warriors on the base paths.

In addition to Dotson’s bases-clearing smack in the third, the Warriors also scored three runs in the fifth.

Smith, Christensen and Ziter recorded consecutive two-out singles for the Warriors. Each hitter sent the ball right over the bag at second base, and the hit parade allowed Stefanski, Smith and Zach Vance to score.

“We hit the ball well today,” Mossburgh said.

The American Legion skipper did stress the need to avoid leaving so many men on base.

“Against quality teams, you need to score those runs,” Mossburgh said. “And South is a quality team.”

South started the season 5-0, but has dropped two straight since returning from a tournament in the Lower 48. Bartlett edged South 6-5 on Tuesday.

The Wolverines used a couple of fluke singles to build a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

After one hit died just beyond the glove of Vance at shortstop and another blooped just past Bovy at second, South’s Paul Bezousek drove in two runs with a hard single to right field.

Peterson allowed eight hits in the win, and used a slow, nifty, curve ball to fan three South hitters.

Smith, Alaska’s catcher, also gunned down two South baserunners in the victory.

Alaska is in the Interior today and will play five games during the three-day Midnight Sun Tournament at Arco Field in Fairbanks.

The Road Warriors face a Fairbanks men’s league team at 3 p.m. today. On Saturday, Alaska will meet host Fairbanks at 11 a.m. and Dimond at 5:30 p.m.

Alaska also plays Fairbanks and Dimond on Sunday.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.