Road Warriors cap BP Invitational with win

Frontiersman

WASILLA — After opening within a convincing win over Chugiak during the first round of the BP Invitational Tournament on Friday, the second day was not exactly kind to the Alaska Road Warriors. The Wasilla-based American Legion club finished on the losing end of both a pitcher’s duel and a lopsided contest.

But on Sunday, the Road Warriors found an dynamic way to cap play in the tourney.

Alaska scored eight times in the third inning and cruised to a 9-3 win over Service during the final day of the eight-team invitational at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.

“We just hit the ball all over the field that inning,” Alaska head coach Steve Mossburgh said of his team’s third-inning efforts. “Everybody hit the ball that inning.”

Aided by those offensive fireworks, Road Warriors starter Dusty Wisdom settled in to pitch as strong seven innings and earn the complete-game victory.

“Dusty was good. For the most part, he stayed out of trouble,” Mossburgh said. “The defense helped him out a few times.”

Mossburgh applauded the play of his defense, a unit that turned three double plays and didn’t commit an error.

“They played really good defense,” Mossburgh said.

Wasilla opened the tourney with an 8-2 win over Chugiak on Friday.

Chris Bydlon sparked the Warriors offense, finished 3-for-5 from his lead-off spot. He drove in two runs and scored another. Wes Smith and Josh Grissom each finished 2-for-2 with two RBI.

Dominick Comerate pitched four innings of two-hit ball to earn the win in relief.

Wasilla held a slim 3-2 lead late, but used four runs in the sixth to break the game open.

The Road Warriors used five hitters in the inning before recording an out. Taylor Palmer walked to load the bases, and Smith walked to force in a run.

With the bases still loaded, Rhowe Stefanski singled to left field to push Alaska’s lead to 5-2. David Newman drove in a run on a sacrifice fly and Grissom notched a run-scoring single later in the inning.

Saturday afternoon, Fairbanks’ Tyler Bolles out-dueled Grissom to lead the 49ers to a 2-0 win over the Road Warriors.

Grissom allowed on two hits in the game and both of Fairbanks runs were unearned. Grissom fanned four and walked four in the loss

Bolles held the Warriors to just three hits and five base runners.

Later in the day, Alaska suffered a 9-1 loss to eventual champion Dimond.

J.D. Mayo drove in the lone Road Warrior run.

The Road Warriors’ busy July continues with seven games in the next seven days. After an off-day today, the Road Warriors host Eagle River on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Lou McManus Field in Wasilla. The team makes the trip to Kenai for a doubleheader against the Twins on Thursday, but returns home for home games against West, Dimond, Bartlett and Chugiak during the final three days of the American Legion regular season.

Alaska hosts both Dimond and Bartlett on Saturday.

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