Warriors forced to work their way through backside of bracket

ANCHORAGE — The top-seeded Wasilla Road Warriors are still alive in a race for a spot in the championship game. But they’ll have to travel a longer road to get there.

Eighth-seeded South Anchorage upset Wasilla 11-6 in the first round Friday. The loss pushed the Valley squad into the loser’s bracket. But the Road Warriors rebounded with a 10-3 thumping of Eagle River during the second day of the Alaska American Legion State Baseball Championships, Saturday at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.

With the win, Wasilla moves ahead to play either Juneau or Dimond Monday at 10 a.m. at Mulcahy. Juneau and Dimond meet in the quarterfinals today at 1 p.m. The loser of that game will face Wasilla.

With the double-elimination format, one team from the loser’s bracket advances to the state championship game, slated for Thursday at 2 p.m.

Wasilla head coach Myrl Thompson said Friday’s loss was an example of one of those games that simply leaves you kind of stunned.

“It was an aberration,” Thompson said. “It was one of those days. Some days all kinds of good stuff happens. This was one of those games where all kinds of bad stuff happened.”

Thompson said, following the South loss, the message to his team is to simply keep competing.

“We’ve just got to keep winning and playing good ball,” Thompson said.

Thompson was happy to see his team bounce back from the tough loss to the Wolverines.

“We definitely played really solid ball,” Thompson said of the win over Eagle River.

Wasilla jumped to an early lead during the win over Eagle River. The Road Warriors scored four in the first, and held a 7-1 advantage after three innings.

Matt Palmer finished 4 for 4 at the plate, and scored three times. Ben Ross was 2 for 3, and drove in four runs. Jacob Butcher finished with two hits and two runs. Mitchell Chauvin also scored twice.

“A couple of the guys were really batting well today,” Thompson said.

Dalton McHugill earned the win on the mound. He scattered seven hits and two earned runs over seven innings. McHugill fanned seven and walked only two.

“Dalton pitched really well today,” Thompson said. “He kept the ball nice and low. He was tough to hit.”

Friday, South plated two runs in each of the final three innings of its win over Wasilla.

The Road Warriors held the first lead of the game. Butcher bounced a leadoff double off the leftfield wall. Butcher advanced to third on a Chauvin sacrifice bunt, and scored on Palmer’s sacrifice fly to right field.

South tied the game in the second inning, and took a 4-1 lead in the third. Wasilla was able to answer with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Sam Loyer drew a leadoff walk for the Warriors. Tyler Hansen followed with a single, and Chauvin loaded the bases with another single.

Palmer used another sacrifice fly to score Loyer and cut South’s lead to 4-2. Ross followed with a bases-clearing double to help Wasilla tie the game at 4.

Chauvin and Hansen also scored runs in the seventh for Wasilla.

Butcher, Ross and Hansen finished with two hits each. Palmer and Ross drove in three runs each. Chauvin and Hansen scored two runs each.

Pioneers eliminated from Horizon Tournament

ANCHORAGE — The Palmer Pioneers saw their season come to an end with an 11-2 loss to Fairbanks Post 11 during the second day of the Horizon Lines Invitational at Bartlett High School.

Fairbanks plated eight runs in the bottom of the second to take a big lead. Palmer scored a run in each of the final two innings.

Bryce Costa and Robert Cottingham each finished with a hit for Palmer. Wyatt Shults and Jacob Almedia scored the Palmer runs.

Palmer opened the Horizon Lines Invitational with a 11-1 loss to Fairbanks Post 15 on Friday. Austin Reeder scored the lone run for the Pioneers. Costa recorded the RBI.

The eight teams that didn’t advance to the state tournament at Mulcahy were placed in the Horizon Tournament bracket.

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