Road Warriors ready for run

WASILLA — During the 2016 high school baseball season, the Wasilla Warriors captured their third straight Southcentral Conference title and posted their third top-4 finish at the state tournament in the last three years.

The bulk of that squad has made the transition to American Legion baseball, and is now suiting up for Wasilla Post 35’s Alaska Road Warriors. Fueled by the momentum gained during the prep season, the Wasilla High Warriors have helped the Alaska Road Warriors get off to a quick, 5-0, start.

“It’s been a really easy transition,” said Ken Ottinger, head coach of both the Wasilla High and Wasilla Post 35 programs.

Ottinger said 13 of the 16 players currently on the Road Warriors roster were on his high school team.

“It helped out a lot. We didn’t have to take two weeks to get the kids ready,” Ottinger said.

Ottinger has a pair of his senior captains from the high school season, outfield and pitcher Nolan Monaghan, and catcher Jeffrey Forster, to help lead the way. He has Wasilla High’s Ben Werner and Hank Boyer at the corners of the infield, and Jimmy Arend and Koby Burns in the outfield.

The three additions on the team include a pair of players returning for their final season of American Legion baseball eligibility, Matt Palmer and Sam Loyer. Palmer, a 2015 graduate of Colony High School and the 2015 Southcentral Conference Player of the Year, returns to the team with a year of college experience under his belt. Palmer just completed his first season at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Oregon.

“He’s come back as a leader,” Ottinger said of Palmer, who is also a team captain.

Loyer is a 2015 graduate of Wasilla High School. Loyer did not play baseball in college, but Ottinger said he’s made an easy transition back to the game.

“He’s jumped back in really quick.,” Ottinger said.

Palmer and Loyer will anchor the team’s middle infield, Ottinger said, with Palmer at shortstop and Loyer at second back. Loyer, a utility player, has also been an asset on the mound.

Ottinger also noted a Houston product, sophomore Sam Reed, who made the varsity team.

Overall, with the success of the Wasilla High team in the legion program in recent seasons, Ottinger said the squad is looking to do big things this summer.

“Our expectations are high, just like they were in high school,” Ottinger said.

Wasilla Post 35 is one of 16 programs currently fielding varsity legion teams in Alaska, in a pair of eight-team divisions. The Road Warriors are in the American Division, alongside Valley rival Palmer Post 15, which is attempting to field a team for the second time in the last three years. For more on Palmer, see frontiersman.com/sports or the adjacent story in the Sunday, June 19, edition of the Frontiersman.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.