Road Warriors club way into 1st

WASILLA — Hot bats have knocked the Alaska Road Warriors into first place.

Fueled by 34 hits and 37 runs in back-to-back wins over Chugiak and Bartlett recently, the Road Warriors have powered their way to the top of the Alaska American Legion standings.

“We’ve just been hitting,” Road Warriors head coach Myrl Thompson said. “A lot of them have been really good drives.”

Thompson’s team posted 19 runs on 18 hits during a 19-2 win over Bartlett at Loretta French Field in Eagle River on Saturday, just two days after recording 18 runs on 16 hits during an 18-9 win over Chugiak. The 5-2 Warriors are averaging 13 runs per game this season.

Thompson expected his club to possess a potent offense, but the hitters are exceeding his expectations.

“I don’t know if I thought we’d be averaging 13 a game,” Thompson said.

He thought an average of seven or eight runs per contest would be more realistic.

In the win over Bartlett, Mitchell Chauvin finished 4 for 5 at the plate. He drove in five runs and scored three times.

“He was the big bat that game,” Thompson said.

Ben Ross tripled in the win over the Golden Bears and Jacob Butcher doubled. David Newman and Josh Grissom each scored three runs.

Bryce Borngraeber fanned eight in five scoreless innings on the mound for the Road Warriors.

Ross helped the Road Warriors bounce Chugiak with a six-RBI effort last Thursday. Ross was 4 for 6 and scored three runs. Newman was 3 for 4 with three runs, and Zane Mileur also scored three times.

Chugiak took an early 5-1 lead in the game, but the Alaska bats helped the Valley-based American Legion team rally. The Road Warriors scored half of their 18 runs in the fourth inning.

“We scored every inning after that. We went to small ball when we got the lead,” Thompson said.

The first-place Road Warriors have a slight edge over South Anchorage in the standings with the 5-2 mark. South sits at 5-3. Dimond, the lone team to beat the Road Warriors this year, is in third at 4-1. The Lynx swept the Road Warriors in a doubleheader early in the season.

The top two teams in the standings will meet on Saturday. The Road Warriors host South at 1 p.m. at McManus Field in Wasilla. The Road Warriors host Kenai Sunday in a doubleheader that starts at 1:30 p.m.

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.