WHEN IT RAINS …

WASILLA — With 11 hits, it didn’t seem like the Alaska Road Warriors needed much help Thursday night. But apparently the Eagle River Wolves were in a giving mood.

The Wasilla-based American Legion squad also drew 10 walks and reached on four Eagle River errors en route to a 12-3 five-inning, mercy rule win during the first day of the Todd Ryan Memorial at McManus Field in Wasilla.

“They helped us out a bit,” Road Warriors skipper Steve Mossburgh said after the win.

The deadly combination of hits, errors and walks led to seven Road Warriors runs during the bottom of the fourth. That gave Alaska the 12-0 lead.

Every hitter in the Alaska lineup benefited somehow by Eagle River’s generosity. Scott Kramer, Eric Marshall and John Stormont each walked twice in the win. Seven of the nine Warriors in the lineup drew at least one walk. Jonathon Boyer and Damon Hammer didn’t walk, but reached base on errors.

Dusty Wisdom led Alaska at the plate, finishing 3 for 3. Wisdom, Marshall, Brody Coleman and Aaron Butcher all reached four times in the victory.

Aided by plenty of run support, David Newman earned the complete game victory on the mound. The lefty tossed a four-hitter and took a shutout into the final inning.

“Newman pitched a hell of a game,” Mossburgh said.

Newman completed the game, despite sitting through a short rain delay.

“He came back and kept throwing strikes,” Mossburgh said.

The Road Warriors took the 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Kramer walked and scored on an Eagle River wild pitch. Alaska pushed its lead to 4-0 in the following inning.

Marshall reached on an error, and Stormont and Butcher drew back-to-back walks to load the bases. Coleman followed with a single to left field to score Marshall. Boyer gave his team the 4-0 advantage with a two-run single later in the inning.

Taylor Palmer led off the third with a walk and scored on an error to give his squad the 5-0 lead. Then the floodgates opened in the fourth.

Alaska put its first four hitters of the inning on base. Wisdom led off the inning with a double and scoring on a Palmer single. Hammer reached on an error and scored. Palmer and Marshall also singled and scored.

Butcher, Coleman and Boyer scored late in the inning.

Coleman capped the win with a run-scoring double in the fifth.

The contest was one of two games during the opening day of the Todd Ryan. Chugiak opened tourney play with a win over Service early in the day.

Play continues today with Eagle River facing Napoleon, Ohio, at 10 a.m. Wasilla meets Napoleon at 1 p.m. Service faces a team from Las Vegas at 4 p.m. The Las Vegas squad meets Chugiak at 7 p.m.

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