Road Warriors fall in tourney

ANCHORAGE — One rough inning knocked the Alaska Road Warriors into the loser’s bracket.

Chugiak used a six-run fourth inning Saturday to beat the Road Warriors 7-5 during the second day of the American Legion State Tournament at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.

“The problem was that fourth inning episode of mental mistakes and walks,” Road Warriors head coach Myrl Thompson said. “Tough to come back from that.”

After giving up six runs on just one hit to Chugiak in the top of the fourth, the Warriors could not come back from such a large deficit. The third-seeded Warriors are now in the loser’s bracket and face East Anchorage today at 9 a.m. in an elimination game. The Valley squad needs a win to stay alive and see another day.

Warriors pitchers had trouble throwing strikes throughout the game. Jacob Butcher started on the mound for the Warriors. Butcher gave up five runs in three innings, striking out one while walking three.

Butcher was relieved by Shane Andrews, who gave up three walks and one run in one inning of work. Josh Grissom pitched the final five innings, allowing only one run.

The Warriors were first on the scoreboard, playing small ball to strike first. Grissom bunted to move Russ Ruta to third after Ruta reached on a single. Ruta later scored on a sacrifice groundout by Morgan McJimsey.

Chugiak did the bulk of its scoring damage in the fourth, even though only one ball left the infield. Five Chugiak Mustangs were issued walks. Outfielder Justin Schneider was hit by a pitch twice in the sixth inning alone.

With Chugiak up five runs, the Road Warriors needed to start mounting a comeback. In the sixth inning, David Newman hit a ball to left field that tailed just far enough away from left fielder Devin Ferriss to bounce out of his glove and score Grissom. Damon Hammer singled to drive in McJimsey.

The Road Warrior defense would prove vital to their chances in the seventh. After allowing one run to score, Grissom got a grounder right back at the pitchers mound. Grissom fired home to McJimsey, who completed the double play by throwing out the runner at first. Grissom stranded two Mustang baserunners and swung momentum toward the Warriors.

The Road Warriors took their share of easy offense in the bottom half of the inning. Kyle Simmons walked and scored on an error off the bat of Ruta. Ruta scored on a McJimsey single as the Warriors tried to rally.

Chugiak’s pitching would prove too tough for any lead change. Starter Chase Wilson pitched five innings for the win. Conner Cimmiyotti pitched a scoreless seventh inning. Cameron Fritz struck out the side in the eighth and held off the Warrior scoring threat in the ninth to get the save.

McJimsey had two hits and two RBI for the Road Warriors. Grissom and Ian Stormont also added two hits.

Contact Tim Rockey at 352-2252 or tim.rockey@frontiersman.com. Follow @trockeynews on Twitter.