Legion squad enjoys big week

WASILLA — The Kenai Twins may have clinched the Alaska American Legion regular season title, but with a win over the Twins today, the Alaska Road Warriors could enter the upcoming state tournament as one of the top teams in the bracket.

“If we want sole position of second place we have to win this game,” Road Warriors head coach Myrl Thompson said Saturday evening as his team was making the trip to Kenai to play the Twins today at noon.

With a win today, the Valley-based Road Warriors (15-9 overall, 13-5 in league play) could sit alone in second place of the league. A loss could create a jam toward the top of the standings. South Anchorage (16-10, 13-6) and Dimond (22-7, 12-6) are also within reach of second. Kenai clinched the regular-season title with a 9-1 win over West Anchorage on Saturday. A pair of key games were also rained out. Eagle River will now play South and East will face Dimond on Monday.

Those games and the Kenai-Wasilla game will all factor into which team ends up with the second seed for the state tourney.

“That second seed is pretty important,” Thompson said.

The first and second seeds each receive byes on the first day of the state tournament.

Wasilla used three wins this week to move into the position to fight for the second seed. Behind stellar pitching, the Road Warriors claimed wins over Service, East Anchorage and Bartlett.

“What saved us all the way through was pitching,” Thompson said. “The pitching was superb.”

Shane Andrews enjoyed a monster outing in relief to help Wasilla beat Service 5-2 on Friday. Andrews, who entered the game in the third inning, fanned 10 Cougars during the final seven innings of the nine-inning game, and walked only two.

“It’s his best game this year,” Thompson said of Andrews. “He pitched very well. He kept the ball low and was throwing strikes.”

David Newman sparked the Road Warriors offense, finishing 4 for 5. Mitchell Chauvin had three hits, and Josh Grissom had a hit and three walks.

Zane Miluer provided a big late hit for the Road Warriors, using a single to score the go-ahead run in the seventh.

Miluer’s RBI broke a 2-2 tie.

Grissom pitched a nine-inning complete game to lead the Road Warriors to a 5-3 win over East on Thursday. The recent Wasilla High graduate scattered three hits and struck out seven. Grissom’s outing marked his team’s first nine-inning complete game of the summer.

Newman and Russ Ruta each drove in runs during a key three-run seventh.

Earlier in the week, the Road Warriors beat Bartlett 10-8.

Overall, it was pitching that stood out for Thompson during the key week.

“I was really pleased with our pitching. They kept us in it, and we got the runs we needed to win,” Thompson said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com; follow him at twitter.com/matsu_sports and find him by searching Valley Sports Huddle on Facebook.