Warriors win 4th straight conference title

PALMER — With the four-peat within their reach, the Wasilla Warriors were suddenly facing a four-run deficit.

But Wasilla found a way. The Warriors overcame Colony’s five-run second, and used a pair of big innings of their own to score a 15-5 mercy-rule win over the Knights in the Southcentral Conference Championships title game Friday night at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

“We find a way to win. We’re a family,” Wasilla senior Hank Boyer said as the Warriors celebrated their fourth straight conference title. “We pick each other up. If one person is having a bad day, then another person has a great day.”

Boyer said the opportunity to notch the four-peat certainly has been on the Warriors’ minds.

“It actually came up quite a bit. Everyone has been wanting to come after us,” Boyer said.

Boyer, Wasilla’s senior leader, came through with the go-ahead, two-run double. With the tie scored at 5 in the fourth, Boyer smacked a ball into centerfield. Cyrus Lovell and Jimmy Arend both scored to give the Warriors the 7-5 lead. This came right after Arend used a run-scoring single to tie the game at 5.

“I can’t say enough about those boys,” Wasilla head coach Ken Ottinger said after the win. “There’s a lot of pressure to four-peat.”

Wasilla scored 12 runs in the final two innings, and celebrated after Buckmaster doubled to drive in Taylon Ottinger, and the game-clinching run.

“They don’t let up. They believe in themselves,” Ottinger said. “That’s what championship teams are made of.”

Boyer said answering Colony’s five-run second with two runs in the bottom of the inning also helped.

“It really put our spirits back up,” Boyer said.

After cutting the deficit to 5-3 in the second, Wasilla added four runs in the fourth. In the fifth, leading 7-5, the Warriors batted around. Taylon Ottinger scored twice in the inning, and sparked the Warriors with a lead-off bunt.

The Warrior infielder had the first of three straight bunt singles in the inning. Buckmaster followed with another bunt, and Kyle Graham used a drag bunt to load the bases. Two walks, a hit batter and Jacob Gilbert’s two-run double set up the opportunity for Buckmaster and Taylon Ottinger to cement the five-inning win.

“That was good,” Ottinger said of the five-inning win on a night in which the temperatures hovered in the 40s. “I didn’t want to go anymore. So we put the pedal down.”

Buckmaster led the Warriors with three hits, three runs and two RBI at the plate, but Ken Ottinger also praised Buckmaster’s work on the mound. Buckmaster, Wasilla’s everyday shortstop, took the ball with two outs in the second and earned the win.

“B.B. Good grief,” Ottinger said of Buckmaster. “He wasn’t supposed to pitch. He said, ‘I got you coach.’ Down 5-1, he said, ‘I got you coach’.”

Colony took advantage of a pair of hits and a pair of Wasilla errors to take a 5-1 lead in the second. Alex Gamez led off with a double and quickly scored to tie the game at 1. Jeremy Allen walked, and both Gamez and Allen scored on Wasilla errors. Chris Sereyko walked and scored on a Joe Ryan single. Trace Severson reached on an error and scored on a Kolten Ketchum ground out.

Ryan scored on a Wasilla passed ball to give his team the 5-1 lead.

Severson led the Knights with two RBI in the loss.

Taylon Ottinger added two hits, two runs and two RBI in the Wasilla win. Arend finished with three runs. Gilbert and and Lovell also scored twice. Graham drove in a game-high four runs.

With the victory, Wasilla also earned one of the conference’s two automatic berths to next week’s state tournament. The other is still up for grabs. Colony will play either Soldotna or Kodiak Saturday at 1 p.m. in the conference’s second-place game. Kodiak and Soldotna play at 10 a.m.

Kodiak 14, Palmer 11

Palmer’s season came to an end with a 14-11 loss to Kodiak Friday afternoon.

The Bears scored four times in the top of the seventh to stay alive in the tournament. After trailing 5-2, Palmer took an 11-10 lead in the sixth.

Senior Aaron Christiansen went 3 for 3 with two runs and an RBI in his final game with the Moose. Skyler Hale scored a team-high three runs. James Nelson, Brady Shults and Luke Guggenmos drove in two runs each.

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