Warriors ready for final push

WASILLA — With the Alaska American Legion state tournament on the horizon, the Alaska Road Warriors are looking to make one final push up the legion ladder.

The Wasilla-based squad currently sits in fifth place among the 11 teams in the league, with a pair of games left on the regular season slate.

“We can make some movement,” Road Warriors head coach Myrl Thompson said Thursday.

The Warriors are mathematically out of the running for first place, Thompson said. But the Warriors still could finish as high as third, depending on what the teams in front do during the final weekend.

“Win out and we have a shot at one of the byes,” Thompson said. “It would take some of the other teams cooperating though.”

South Anchorage stood in first Thursday evening, a point ahead of second-place Dimond in the standings. Fairbanks and Service are in a tie for third, with the Road Warriors just one point back in fifth.

The Road Warriors are in Anchorage tonight to face second-place Dimond at 6:30 p.m. at the Kosinski Fields. The Wasilla squad closes regular season play Sunday afternoon at Chugiak.

Thompson is confident his team will finish no lower than fifth, regardless of what happens during the final weekend. If that is the case, it’s not all bad. Wasilla entered the 2010 state tourney as the No. 5 seed and played its way into the state championship game.

Wasilla is 0-3 this year against the top two teams heading into tonight’s game against Dimond. But the Road Warriors played well against both teams.

“We’re competitive with all of the teams,” Thompson said.

The Wasilla squad is 2-1 against Service and split a weekend series against Fairbanks last week.

The Road Warriors are 4-1 in their last five. The squad crushed East Anchorage last week before earning the split in the Interior over the weekend. Earlier this week, the Road Warriors blanked Bartlett 10-0 and earned a free win after East forfeited a game scheduled for Thursday night.

Josh Grissom pitched a five-inning, complete game three-hitter to lead the Warriors to the win over Bartlett. Grissom forced 10 hitters to ground out, he fanned two and didn’t walk a batter.

“Josh Grissom had a heck of a good game on the mound,” Thompson said. “He was keeping it low, had good command of his stuff.”

Thompson said Grissom’s velocity has also improved over the course of the season.

A half-dozen different players drove in at least one run for the Road Warriors. Patrick Fitzgerland and Russ Ruta knocked in two runs each. Fitzgerald finished 2 for 3 with a pair of doubles. He put one pitch off the outfield wall. Jonathon Boyer also doubled off the wall in the win, and finished with a pair of hits.

Brody Coleman walked twice and scored a pair of runs.

In Fairbanks, the Road Warriors jumped out to a 7-1 lead and held on for a 7-6 win over the 49ers.

Ruta, Grissom and Aaron Butcher each had a pair of hits in the win. Coleman drove in a pair of runs.

Isaac Coursen pitched eight innings in the win.

Fairbanks edged the Road Warriors 6-3 in the other game of the series.

The Road Warriors have lost one of their team leaders, pitcher and first baseman Dusty Wisdom, to injury. Wisdom, a Wasilla High graduate who plays at Brown Mackie College in Kansas, hurt his elbow and will be out of action for at least three months, Thompson said.

Thompson said Grissom and Coursen should join Boyer as the top three starting pitchers on the squad.

Boyer and David Newman are expected to fill in for Wisdom at first.

Wisdom was leading the squad with a 3-1 mark, and was second with a 3.78 earned run average. He was also hitting .273.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.