Prep baseball: Knights ready for state tourney

WASILLA — Even before the season began, Colony baseball coach Jamie Mayo had a hunch he had a team worth watching.

When Mayo opened up the school’s gym for informal workouts over the winter, he said more than a dozen kids would show up three times a week — compared to just a handful in years past.

“These kids have worked hard,” Mayo said. “It’s been a very easy group of kids to work with.”

The work Colony’s players put in over the offseason paid big dividends during the regular season. Behind solid pitching and near-flawless defense, the Knights racked up a perfect 9-0 record en route to a Southcentral Conference title and a No. 1 seed in the state tournament, which gets under way Thursday in Fairbanks.

Last year, Colony fell just two close losses from reaching the tournament, and Mayo said he believes many of this year’s returning players felt like they had something to prove after coming up just short.

“They weren’t going to let that happen again,” he said.

Mayo said he knew coming into the season that this year’s Knights squad was going to make a big push toward getting Colony back to the state tournament for the first time since 2000.

“I would say the team is looking right about where we thought they’d be at the beginning of the season,” he said.

Key to Colony’s success this year has been its defense. Mayo said the team has averaged fewer than one error per game — an extremely low number by spring high school baseball standards.

“The thing that’s gotten us to where we’re at is our defense and our pitching,” Mayo said.

The Knights are led in the infield by shortstop Josh Boring, a slick-fielding, hard-throwing sophomore who Mayo said has the potential to play college ball someday.

On the hill, Colony has relied upon four primary pitchers this season — Chris Breck, Matt Packa, Rhowe Stefanski and Colter Peterson — to get most of the work. Mayo said Breck will likely start the state tournament opener against West Valley on Thursday, with Packa being the likely choice to start if the Knights can advance in the bracket. The Knights may also be helped by the emergence of senior Phillip Gifford, who threw four scoreless innings last weekend against Palmer.

Mayo said he doesn’t know much about West Valley, only that they’re good enough to get to state, which means they’re dangerous.

“They’re there for a reason,” he said. “We just need to make sure that we go out and play our game.”

West Valley finished the year with an 8-4 record to earn the No. 2 seed out of the Mid-Alaska Conference. If the Knights can get past the Wolfpack, they’ll face either Juneau or Dimond for a chance to play for a state title. While it may be tempting for Mayo to save his top pitcher for a potential clash with Dimond or Juneau, Mayo said he’s not planning on taking anything for granted, and will throw Breck in the opener Thursday.

“I don’t believe in saving any pitcher,” he said. “I’ve seen teams do that and not make it to the semis.”

In addition to this year being Colony’s first trip to state since 2000, it’s also the first trip for a Mat-Su school since Wasilla lost in the 2001 championship game to Service.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com