South stymies Knights to open tourney

ANCHORAGE — Colony may have been riding high after winning the Southcentral Conference championship last week, but a stingy South Anchorage defense corralled the Knights in the first round of state tournament play Thursday.

The Wolverines beat the Knights 7-1 in a game Colony head coach Jordan Chadwell said was much closer than a box score would indicate. Mostly, though, it was the Knights’ miscues at the plate that couldn’t spark its offense, he said.

“They chipped away a few (runs) at us early, but we just didn’t hit the ball as well as we normally do,” he said. “We had guys in scoring position in the first innings and didn’t capitalize.”

South did, however, Chadwell said, taking advantage of a couple of early defensive Colony miscues to take an early lead.

On the mound, senior Damon Hammer threw well for the Knights, Chadwell said.

“He’s a senior, a leader and I thought he pitched a great game,” the coach said. “We gave up (seven runs), but I wasn’t upset with that one bit. A couple of those early runs were on some errors. He threw over 100 pitches and we kept him on the mound the whole game.”

The loss sets up a showdown with Lathrop at 10 a.m. in the tournament’s consolation bracket with the winner advancing to the state fourth-place game.

Although losing in the first round is disappointing, Chadwell said he expects the Knights to bounce back.

“That’s our new goal, to win the rest of the games in our tournament,” he said. “Even though today was a disappointment, we have to go in with our heads held high.”

Chadwell is confident that can happen with junior Jacob Butcher getting the start today for Colony.

“He’s got the most wins for us on the season and one of the lowest ERAs on the team, and he’s got a great arm,” he said. Still, “We have to show up with the bats and a better mental approach at the plate.”