Road Warriors off to hot start, ‘hitting the cover off the ball’

WASILLA — When looking at Mat-Su Valley prep baseball as a whole, it was a pretty good spring for the local high school clubs.

Colony continued to be a power, winning its third straight Southcentral Conference title. Wasilla spent much of the season in the hunt for a postseason berth and scored its first win over rival Colony in many years. Palmer continued to show improvement with its young club. And Houston, which fielded a varsity program for the first time in several years, opened eyes by posting a number of solid wins.

With that said, the man who each summer has the opportunity to take his pick from the talent produced by the four local high schools has to be pretty happy.

And that man, Alaska Road Warriors head coach Steve Mossburgh, is.

“We have a lot of players from all the teams,” Mossburgh said.

And it’s so far, so good for the Warriors. The Wasilla-based team, which plays its home games at McManus Field near the Bumpus Ballfields softball complex, is off to a 2-1 start. Alaska beat West Anchorage 12-1 on Saturday in Anchorage and Eagle River 11-4 last week. The team’s only loss came against a traveling all-star team based out of Arizona.

Mossburgh said the Warriors have played well in all areas early in the season.

“They’ve been hitting real well. The guys are hitting the cover off the ball,” Mossburgh said. “They’re fielding the ball well and the pitching’s been better than I thought it was going to be.”

In addition to the high school products and recent graduates Mossburgh has on his roster, the longtime head coach also welcomed back a few players who are a year removed from high school. American Legion rules allow ballplayers to return to its diamond a year away from the prep ranks.

Wes Smith, Matt Packa and Rhowe Stefanski are among the older players back. Smith, who should be the team’s top catcher, was the bullpen catcher for the Mat-Su Miners last summer, but stood out with the Road Warriors two seasons ago.

Smith recently completed his freshman season at Mesa College in Arizona.

Packa and Stefanski are 2009 graduates of Colony and helped the Knights win back-to-back conference titles. Packa should be Alaska’s No. 1 pitcher, Mossburgh said, and will play in the infield. Stefanksi will play in the outfield and also pitch.

Dusty Wisdom, David Newman, Eric Washington, Chris Bydlon and Jaron Christensen are among the Road Warriors representing Wasilla. Wisdom threw seven solid innings during the win over Eagle River. Washington and Newman will play in the outfield, and Christensen and Bydlon will play in the infield.

JD Mayo, Dominic Commerate, Taylor Palmer, Damon Hammer and Jonathon Boyer are among the Colony Knights on the squad. Mayo is expected to start most days in right field. Boyer has been playing first base. Commerate earned a win on the mound against West on Saturday.

Tommy Brown and Tim Rockey are among the Palmer Moose on the squad. Josh Grissom, Scott Kramer and Nate Graber represent Houston.

Mossburgh said he certainly has a versatile bunch in the infield.

“They’re all interchangeable,” Mossburgh said.

It’s a luxury for the Road Warriors skipper. He can tinker with the lineups when he rotates specific infielders to the pitching mound.

The Road Warriors are also showing a bit of depth on the pitching mound.

“We have a lot of guys who can throw the ball,” Mossburgh said. “A lot of guys will be doing a lot of pitching.”

The Road Warriors host the Kenai Twins Wednesday and travel north to compete in a tournament in Fairbanks on Friday.

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