Wasilla still alive in state tourney despite loss to Kenai

ANCHORAGE —Kenai found a way to slip past Wasilla, but Road Warriors head coach Ken Ottinger found a number of reasons to be proud of his players following a gritty performance during a 4-3 loss to the Twins.

“I’m still proud of my boys,” Ottinger said Thursday evening after the loss in the winner’s bracket, on the third day of the Alaska American Legion State Baseball Tournament at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage. “We hit the ball. A couple of those balls were hit straight on the screws but they went to somebody. That’s baseball. Like I just told them, that’s baseball.”

Despite the loss, the Road Warriors remain alive in the double-elimination tournament. Wasilla moves down in the bracket, and will face Service Friday at 3 p.m. in an elimination game. Kenai, the lone undefeated team remaining in the tournament, meats Juneau Friday at 6:30 p.m. Wasilla still has a chance to play its way back into the championship game.

“We’ve still got another day of baseball,” Ottinger said.

Kenai needed a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh to squeeze past the Warriors.

Wasilla led early in the game. In the top of the first, Ben Werner led off the game with a double and scored on a Matt Palmer single. Palmer quickly scored on a Koby Burns single to give Wasilla the 2-0 lead.

After Kenai cut Wasilla’s lead in half, with a run in the bottom of the first, Sam Loyer used his speed to give Wasilla a 3-1 lead. Loyer scored from second base when Werner reached on an infield single.

“That kid’s got wheels,” Ottinger said of Loyer. “If the ball’s in play, he’s going home no matter what.”

Kenai added another run in the bottom of the second, but the Road Warriors led until the bottom of the seventh.

Two days after Austin Robertson and Hank Boyer combined for nine innings of work on the mound, the duo pitched again for the Road Warriors.

“I never do that,” Ottinger said of using pitchers on two days rest. “But it’s tournament time.”

Ottinger said Wasilla did use a strategy to keep from overworking the pitchers. Robertson went six innings on Tuesday, during the first-round win over Chugiak, and Boyer finished the final three.

“We flipped the script,” Ottinger said.

Robertson made the start, once again, but only worked the first two innings. Boyer came in during the third.

Werner led Wasilla at the plate, finishing 3 for 5 with a run and an RBI. Palmer was 2 for 4, with a run and an RBI, while Burns was also 2 for 4 and drove in a run.

Thursday’s contest marked Wasilla’s third straight game against a top-4 team in the bracket. The Road Warriors beat fourth-seeded Chugiak, the defending state champion, in the opening round, and upset top-seeded Juneau on Tuesday.

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