Road Warriors fall in season finale

/ Frontiersman

WASILLA - It's 325-feet from home plate to the left field fence at Lou McManus Field, where the Alaska Road Warriors American Legion baseball team plays its home game. After Saturday's 5-3 loss to the Post 28 Service Cougars, it wouldn't be a surprise if the Warriors moved the fence back a couple of feet.

Luke Cronin and Ben Hurd each hit towering balls which just cleared the fence. The hits resulted in a pair of two-run homers, which sank the Road Warriors.

Hurd's was the most devastating of the two as it came in the top half of the seventh and final inning, erasing a 3-2 Road Warriors lead.

&#8220That on just squeaked over,” Warriors coach Steve Mossburgh said. &#8220I thought for a minute that Rob (Tingstrom), our left fielder had a lay on the ball. But the wind must have pushed it over the wall.”

Cronin's blast came in the third and also erased a Warrior lead.

Josh Morlan came close to tying the game in the Warriors' final at bat when his line drive into the left field corner bounced just shy of the fence and over for a ground rule double. Had he hit a home run Cody Farrington, who singled to open the inning would have also scored. instead Farrington was stopped at third.

&#8220I thought I had it when I hit the ball,” Morlan said. &#8220When I saw it start to drop I was going, ‘please, please, please.' trying to will it over the fence.”

Morlan likely used all his luck up in the fifth inning when he made a dramatic catch on the pitcher's mound.

With two outs, Service third baseman Chase Burrus drilled a line drive right back at Morlan, who instinctively fell backwards to avoid the ball, while raising his glove in hopes of making a

play.

&#8220I'd like you to believe that I watched the ball all the way into my glove,” Morlan said. &#8220But the truth is I relied on normally being an outfielder and put the glove up and just got lucky.”

The ball came back so fast it left Morlan laying on his back at the edge of the mound for several seconds. He than sat staring at the ball, shaking his head before walking to the dug out.

&#8220That shook me up a little,” Morlan said. &#8220I was still shaking when I had to lead off the bottom half of the inning.”

The Warriors just missed on their final scoring chance in the sixth, when Farrington was thrown out at home on what appeared to be an attempted steal.

&#8220It was supposed to have been a squeeze bunt,” Mossburgh said. &#8220We saw that their third baseman was playing really deep and we had a decent bunter at the plate. But someone missed the signal and that left Cody hanging out there.”

The loss wrapped up the regular season for the Road Warriors, who will travel to Fairbanks for the district championships which begin Wednesday.

&#8220It's a shame we had to lose this one,” Mossburgh said. &#8220We were that close to winning today. I hoped that we could have taken some momentum from today into the tournament.

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or at darrell.breese@

frontiersman.com.