Season opener

WASILLA — After Palmer’s win over the Wasilla Warriors on Wednesday, PHS head coach Dave Combs grabbed a dry erase board that was virtually painted with marks that tallied his team’s hits and strikeouts.

“We had way too many strikeouts, 11 of them. That’s not good,” Combs said. “But we had nine hits and only left one on base. That’s awesome. That means we’re taking care of business when runners are on base.”

Palmer scored four runs in the fourth and three more in the sixth en route to a 9-8 win over the Warriors in the season opener for the Mat-Su Valley prep baseball teams at Carl Fritzler Field, Wednesday.

Senior Keith Christopher recorded three hits and drove in two runs to lead the Moose. Senior T.J. Fullmer, junior Sterling Nielsen and sophomore Tommy Brown each scored a pair of runs for Palmer.

Not only did Combs feel his team took care of business at the plate, the head coach was thrilled with the play of his defense.

“The difference between my team last year and this one — almost the entire game, when an out was there, we took care of it,” Combs said.

In addition to leading Palmer at the plate, Christopher was also solid on the mound for the Moose. Christopher forced the first six Wasilla hitters of the game to ground out, and didn’t allow a ball to leave the infield until the fifth inning.

“We were getting the outs,” Combs said. “The defense was playing behind him.”

Like Combs, Wasilla head coach Shane McRee saw both some good things and some bad things during the first game of the season.

“Some of the good things we did really good, but some of the bad things didn’t help us out at all,” the first-year head coach said. “Our errors definitely stung us a little more than they did.”

But despite the loss, McRee was pleased with the effort of a Warrior team that fought back after facing an early four-run deficit.

“Even though it’s a loss, it’s a positive thing,” McRee said. “We know what to work on and we’re gonna get it together.”

Tommy Rodamer sparked Wasilla’s comeback attempt with an inside-the-park home run during a four-run fourth inning. With Eric Marshall on first base, Rodamer sent a Christopher pitch down the right field line, deep into the outfield. Marshall scored easily from first, and Rodamer trucked around to beat the Palmer throw to the plate.

Chris Bydlon opened the inning with a infield single, and later scored on Marshall’s infield single.

Dusty Wisdom reached on an error and scored later in the inning.

Wisdom, Wasilla’s starting pitcher, also fanned eight hitters in five innings of work.

“(He did) phenomenal for the first game of the year,” McRee said. “He probably could have kept going, but I just have to preserve what he’s got.”

Palmer tagged Wisdom for two runs in the third. Nielsen walked and scored on a Christopher double, and Christopher scored on a Cole Smith bloop single.

But much of Palmer’s damage offensively was done in the fourth and sixth innings.

Nielsen and Kyle Bovy each singled and scored in the fourth inning. Fullmer and Brown both reached on errors and scored in the fourth.

In the sixth, Fullmer, Brown and Kyle Emery scored consecutive runs on wild pitches in the sixth.

Emery, who barely beat the tag at home, scored what proved to be the game-winning run.

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