Showing no mercy

WASILLA — As Mike Wagner hustled his way around the base paths and made the hard turn around third, the Alaska Road Warriors infielder was hoping to get the green light from head coach Steve Mossburgh.

But with one out, Mossburgh threw up his arms for the stop sign.

“He was looking to score,” Mossburgh said of Wagner, who sparked the Alaska offense with a run-scoring triple to left field in the bottom of the first inning of an 11-1 win over Eagle River at McManus Field in Wasilla on Friday. “He asked me why I stopped him and I said we don’t want to make the second out at home when we could have a runner on third with the middle of the lineup coming up.”

And Mossburgh was right. Wagner scored anyway.

The Colony High School product later scored on a wild pitch, and finished 2-for-2 with two runs during the lopsided five-inning American Legion win.

“He’s been hitting the ball good lately,” Mossburgh said.

Wagner dumped a ball past the Eagle River right fielder in the first to record the triple, the first of five Alaska hits in the game.

“I saw him walk the first guy, and I was just waiting until he threw a strike,” Wagner said. “He threw one middle, away and I popped it out there.”

J.D. Mayo drew the walk ahead of Wagner, and was able to score from first on the play. And Wagner was right on his heels.

“I was trying to catch J.D. in front of me, but fortunately we’re the exact same speed,” Wagner joked.

Wagner said he did have his eye on home plate and the inside-the-park home run.

“Maybe I would have been able to get around, but coach was playing it safe early on and I can understand that,” Wagner said.

Alaska broke the game open with five runs in the bottom of the second. Even though the Warriors recorded only five hits during the 10-run mercy-rule win, Alaska did benefit from a half-dozen walks and six errors by the Eagle River infield.

“They’re a young team,” Mossburgh said. “But we put the ball in play tonight, and that’s what I tell them they’ve got to do. Put the ball in play and good things happen.”

David Newman, Eli Graber and Jaron Christensen-Vavalis each drew consecutive walks and scored on Eagle River errors in the second.

Chris Bydlon reached on an error, and later scored on the Wolves’ fourth error of the inning. Mayo walked and scored on Rhowe Stefanksi’s RBI single to left field to round out Alaska’s five-run second.

Alaska scored four more runs in the fourth. Tommy Rodamer pushed the Warriors’ lead to 11-0 when Stefanski scored on his double down the right field line.

With the help of plenty of offense, Alaska starter Kyle Bovy cruised through five innings of work to earn the complete-game win.

“The run support helps a lot,” Bovy said. “I felt good on the mound today. My arm didn’t hurt or anything, it’s been sore lately.”

Bovy allowed two hits and walked three during the victory.

“Bovy threw the ball well,” Mossburgh said. “He pitched a good game.”

The Road Warriors, who are now less than a week away from the American Legion state tournament, cap the regular season against South Anchorage today at 1 p.m. at McManus Field.

The 2009 legion state tourney begins Friday at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer. The preliminary games continue at Hermon Brothers until July 29 and then the top teams will move to Anchorage to play in the semifinals and the championship at Mulcahy Stadium on July 30 and 31.

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