Road Warriors earn walk-off win over Service

WASILLA — With two outs, the game tied and bases loaded in the bottom of the final inning, Morgan McJimsey popped the ball straight up into the air.

As the short pop-up drifted over the third base line toward the home dugout and began to fall toward the mitts of three Service Cougars, McJimsey was prepared to trade his bat for a glove and get ready for extra innings. But then McJimsey heard the thud — the sound a baseball makes when it hits the grass in the center of a triangle of players.

McJimsey had a second chance, and the Colony High product made Service pay.

McJimsey cracked a single down the third base line into left field to drive in the game-winning run to give the Alaska Road Warriors a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the Cougars Thursday on the first day of the Todd Ryan Memorial American Legion baseball tournament at McManus Field in Wasilla.

“I felt so relieved,” McJimsey said after his walk-off. “I was like, this is my chance to make them regret making that mistake.”

McJimsey’s go-ahead single was the highlight of a Warriors two-run frame that led to the win in the seven-run innings.

Heading into the bottom half of the final inning, Service held a 3-2 lead. Tyler Hansen drew a lead-off walk and Jacob Butcher reached on a Service error to put to runners on.

With one out, David Newman singled to right center field to drive in Hansen and tie the score at 3. Josh Grissom drew another walk to load the bases.

“We never quit, no matter what the score is, what the inning is, how many outs there are,” McJimsey said. “We’ll keep going and going and going, and it worked out for us today.”

With the bases loaded, Ian Stormont entered the game as a pinch runner at third and scored on the McJimsey hit.

“Sometimes when you get an extra one, it makes a world of difference. It definitely was a nice hit. He needed that second chance, and he pulled through,” Road Warriors head coach Myrl Thompson said of McJimsey. “The kid puts the bat on the ball a lot.”

McJimsey led the Warriors at the plate, finishing 2 for 4 with an RBI. Newman was also 2 for 4 with an RBI. Damon Hammer drove in two runs.

The Warriors also had a pair of ground-rule doubles in the win. Butcher and Hammer had hits bounce over the McManus left field fence.

Mitchell Chauvin earned the win in relief for the Road Warriors. Chauvin came in to pitch a perfect seventh inning. Grissom started the game and scattered six hits in six innings. He fanned two and walked two.

Service tagged the Road Warriors for a pair of unearned runs in the fifth. Trailing 1-0 with two outs, Mike Choy and Ryan Caron reached on consecutive Alaska errors. Choy scored from second base on the second error to tie the score at 1. Caron scored from second base on Matt Yandell’s bloop single to center field to give the Cougars the 2-1 lead.

Service added to its advantage in the sixth. Johnny Mezaros drew a lead-off walk and later scored on a Ryan Bailey single to give the Cougars the 3-1 lead.

Alaska took the first lead in the game. Ben Ross drew a lead-off walk and scored on Hammer’s ground-rule double in the fourth, and the Warriors led 1-0. Hammer cut Service’s lead to 3-2 with another RBI in the sixth.

Not only did the win push the Road Warriors to 1-0 in tourney play, but it also counted toward league play. The Valley team remains second place overall at 12-4, 11-4 in league play.

The Todd Ryan Memorial, which is part of the Alaska Airlines Tournament Tour, continues this morning at McManus Field. The Road Warriors host the Strongsville (Ohio) Dirtbags at 10 a.m. Strongsville will stay on the field and play Service at 1 p.m. Castroville, Texas, meets Chugiak and 4 p.m. and Fairbanks at 7 p.m.

There are three games scheduled for Saturday. Contests at noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. will determined by Thursday and Friday’s pool play. The final day of the tourney is Sunday, with to be announced games slated for noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. The Todd Ryan is one-third of the Alaska Airlines Tournament Tour. The batch of tourneys also includes the Bill Miller Big Fish tourney in Kenai, July 10-12, and the BP Invitational in Anchorage, slated for July 12-15.

For schedules for all three events, see alaskalegion.com.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor at sports@frontiersman.com, follow him at twitter.com/matsu_sports and find him by searching Valley Sports Huddle on Facebook.