Road Warriors start the season with mid-week split

WASILLA — The Alaska Road Warriors Post 35 American Legion got its season off to a mixed start this week, opening the season with a 17-5 win over Bartlett on Tuesday and a marathon 11-9 loss to Dimond Thursday night.

Tommy Rodamer hit a three-run homer to highlight the Road Warriors’ win Tuesday. Wes Smith was 4-for-5 with a triple, Eric Washington went 3-for-5 and J.D. Mayo hit a pair of doubles to go along with a pair of diving catches in the outfield.

Chris Breck struck out five in six innings to get the win, while Colter Peterson pitched the seventh inning to finish off the game.

Alaska coach Steve Mossburgh said he was impressed with his team’s first-game firepower.

“They were really driving the ball well,” Mossburgh said.

Things didn’t go as smoothly for the Road Warriors on Thursday. Dimond jumped out to a 5-0 lead through four innings on the strength of a four-run fourth inning that saw Alaska starter Matt Packa allow four walks. The Lynx got a two-run single from Erik Cooper in the inning to go along with a pair of runs scored on steals of home. Zach Eastlick nabbed the first steal of home as part of a double steal, and Justin Jones took his on a straight steal with Packa in a full wind-up.

Dimond proved extremely aggressive on the base paths throughout the game, picking up eight stolen bases in nine tries.

Alaska got two runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings, but still trailed 8-4 heading into the seventh.

That’s when things started to look up for the home side, as Alaska managed to scratch five runs across against Cooper, who came on in relief of Jones after the fifth inning.

Alaska picked up three hits in the inning, including RBI singles from Mayo and Kyle Bovy as well as a sacrifice fly RBI by Washington.

But Dimond was able to mount a comeback of its own, getting three runs in the eight against Peterson, who took the loss in relief of Packa.

Packa allowed five runs in four innings, gave up just two hits, walked seven and struck out five. Peterson went 3.2 innings and gave up six runs on eight hits, striking out two and walking one.

Cooper got the win despite giving up five runs in his four innings of work.

Bovy had three hits for Alaska, while Mayo and Kody Ziter each had two hits and two RBI in the game, which took 3 hours and eight minutes to complete.

Alaska’s next game is Friday at 6:30 p.m. against Eagle River at Oberg Field in Peters Creek. The Road Warriors return to McManus Field Saturday for a 1 p.m. game against East.