Prep baseball: Senior reliever leads Knights to win

PALMER — On a throwback kind of afternoon, fans at Hermon Brothers Field were treated to an old fashioned pitcher’s duel.

Colony reliever Phillip Gifford and starter Matt Packa combined for a two-hit shutout, while Palmer southpaw Cole Smith gave up just three hits over five innings of work in the Knights’ 1-0 victory in the first game of the teams’ annual wood bat doubleheader.

Colony also won Friday’s second game to cap a 9-0 regular season. The Knights will head to Fairbanks next week for the state tournament.

Packa didn't give up a hit in three innings of work Friday, but was forced to leave the game when a line shot off the bat of Kenny Carlson struck him in the right hand. Packa wasn't seriously injured on the play, but coach Jamie Mayo elected to lift his starter just to be safe.

Mayo's decision meant Gifford was called into duty earlier than expected. Though the senior hadn’t pitched an inning all season, he’d been told before the game to be ready.

“I thought I was gonna come in the last inning,” he said.

Gifford has been squeezed out of Colony’s rotation this season by a deep staff and short schedule. The Knights were playing only their eighth game of the season in Friday’s opener, and Gifford had been the odd man out all year long.

“On the varsity, we’ve got four pitchers that have gotten most of the work,” Mayo said.

Though that group hadn’t included Gifford until Friday, the righthander said he knew exactly what to do when he finally got to the hill.

“Throw strikes,” he said. “That’s what I do.”

Despite that confidence, Gifford’s outing didn't start out in ideal fashion. He said he didn’t throw well in the bullpen, and things got even worse when he got into the game.

On Gifford’s first offering of the game, Palmer shortstop Tim Rocky ripped a line shot into left field to break up the no-hitter.

And then Palmer’s bats went silent.

Keeping the ball consistently down in the strike zone, Gifford didn't allow another baserunner until the seventh, when Kyle Bovy's single ended a string of nine consecutive Palmer outs. Gifford finished the game pitching four innings of scoreless ball, allowing two hits and walking none. He didn't allow a Palmer baseruner to get past first.

Gifford wasn’t overpowering, just effective. With the Colony infield playing flawlessly behind him, he was able to force Palmer into repeated ground-outs and pop-ups.

“I was really pleased with how he came in with confidence,” Mayo said.

The Knights put on a clinic in the top half of the sixth, when they took out the heart of Palmer’s order with ruthless efficiency. First, shortstop Josh Boring made a running pick-up and powerful throw to get Keith Christopher by a half-step at first. Then Gifford fielded a hard grounder up the middle to get Cole Smith, a play followed seconds later by some nifty work by third baseman Chris Breck, who charged a Carlson grounder and gunned down the Colony clean-up hitter to end a four-minute top half of the inning.

“The sixth inning, they shut us down,” Palmer coach Dave Combs said. “All three of those balls that were hit were not easy plays, and they got it done.”

Gifford said having good defense behind him made it easy to go out and throw his kind of game.

“I’m a ground ball pitcher, not many fly balls get hit off me, so it’s like, let ‘em hit it,” he said. “My guys can field it.”

Palmer's best chance of scratching a run across came in the second inning, when the Moose loaded the bases on three walks by Packa. But the big Colony righthander managed to strike out Palmer center fielder Kyle Emery to end the threat.

Colony got its only run on a triple by Mike Wagner to score Blake Huppert from second base just moments after Huppert stole the base despite getting caught leaving early by Smith’s deceptive pick-off move.

“Really it was just our one little boo-boo,” Combs said. “We had that guy picked off right in between first and second, but nobody was there when the first-baseman went to throw the ball, and when he threw, it was too late. On the next pitch, their guy hits a triple. That’s how close the game was. We were one play away from still playing.”

Colony’s defensive display nearly overshadowed the work done by Smith, who pushed the undefeated Southcentral Conference champions to the limit, striking out seven Knights before giving way to Sterling Nielsen in the sixth.

“He pitched great,” Combs said.

Smith said it was fun going up against Colony’s line-up in his final high school game. The Knights feature several of Smith’s American Legion teammates, which he said gave him a little extra incentive to go after the Colony hitters.

“I kinda dig a little deeper to try and get ‘em out,” he said.

Colony 6, Palmer 2 (Game 2)

Chris Breck saved perhaps Friday’s best pitching performance for last, giving up just two hits over six and a third innings to complete an undefeated regular season for Colony as the Knights picked up a 6-2 win over Palmer in the nightcap of Friday’s wood bat doubleheader.

Breck walked just two batters and struck out nine.

Palmer starter Keith Christopher capped his high school career with a complete-game seven-hitter, but didn’t get much defensive help as the Moose committed five errors.

Colony’s Josh Boring was 1-for-1 with two runs scored and a pair of stolen bases, while Colter Peterson had an RBI double with a run scored.

Curtis Nelson and Kenny Carlson picked up Palmer’s only two hits.

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

Colony 1, Palmer 0 (Game 1)

Palmer 000 000 0 — 0 2 2

Colony 000 100 X — 1 3 0

WP: Gifford LP: Smith

Colony 7, Palmer 2 (Game 2)

Colony 201 210 0 — 6 7 1

Palmer 010 100 0 — 2 2 5

WP: Breck LP: Christopher