Prep softball: Knights ready for tourney

PALMER — The Colony Knights had more freshmen in the lineup than they had seniors during the 2009 regular season. But despite that youth, Colony head coach Mike Stewart believes his team has the potential to enjoy some success during the state tourney this weekend.

“If they play the way they can, they’ll do fine,” Stewart said of the Knights, who start ASAA/First National Bank State Softball Championships play against Chugiak today at 11 a.m. at Cartee Fields in East Anchorage. “We’re a young team. We’ve made some mistakes. But we’ve played some good softball.”

A pair of All-Railbelt Conference upperclassmen will lead the young Knights squad on to the diamond to play Chugiak, a squad that finished second in the Cook Inlet Conference.

Junior Reanna Stewart, Colony’s All-Railbelt ace, will take the mound against the Mustangs. The head coach said Colony’s starter has the right mentality to have success.

“She has the focus,” Stewart said. “She goes out there and throws hard, and is always around the plate. She gets her share of strikeouts and always gives your team a chance to win. That’s all you can ask.”

All-conference shortstop Dani Buckley will anchor the infield at shortstop and take her team-leading .586 batting average to the three-hole of the order.

“Dani’s been huge,” Stewart said of the senior, who is also second on the team in RBI. “She’s pretty much the leader on the team.”

Third baseman Jackie Schachle has also been key to the Knights’ success. Schachle led the team in RBI and also hit .521.

“She played an excellent third base,” Stewart said of the junior.

Stewart said the contributions of his freshman class were also important to the Knights’ ability to qualify for the state tourney.

“The freshmen really stepped up for us,” Stewart said.

Shortstop Devan Clark, outfielder Sage Stefanski and utility player Chantelle Jones all saw significant action as freshmen.

Colony finished 6-5 overall and 5-4 in Railbelt play to clinch the third spot in the conference. Juneau-Douglas, the two-time defending large-schools state champion is the Railbelt’s top team after finishing the regular season 17-1 overall and 10-0 in the conference.

West Valley (13-5, 6-3) is second and Lathrop (6-12, 3-5) is fourth.

The Knights did not see Chugiak during the regular season, but Stewart expects the Mustangs to be as tough as they have been in the past.

“Chugiak will be good,” Stewart said of the team that finished fourth in state last season and third in 2007.

The Knights did play five of the other seven teams in the tourney. In addition to conference foes Juneau, West Valley and Lathrop, Colony also faced East Anchorage and Bartlett.

East Anchorage won the CIC regular season title finishing 20-1 overall and 15-1 in the conference. Bartlett (10-11, 7-8) is the CIC’s fourth seed.

The two-day, double-elimination event starts today at 9 a.m. at Cartee Fields, which is located near the intersection of South Pine Street and Debarr Road in East Anchorage.

With a win over Chugiak, Colony would face either Juneau or Dimond today at 3 p.m. With a loss, the Knights see Juneau or Dimond at 1 p.m.

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