Winning streak lifts Road Warriors to first place

WASILLA — With one big road trip left on the regular-season schedule, the Wasilla Road Warriors still have some work to do.

But the Valley American Legion squad is right where they want to be heading into the final weekend before the upcoming state tournament.

Wasilla is sitting in first place in Alaska American Legion baseball.

“We’re guaranteed to make (the state tournament) win or lose, so that’s a good thing,” Wasilla head coach Myrl Thompson said Wednesday afternoon. “But we kind of want that top seed. Last year we had it. It’d be kind of nice to get it again.”

Wasilla improved to 19-5 overall and 13-3 in league play with a 10-4 win over South in Anchorage on Wednesday. The win was Wasilla’s seventh straight, and helped the Road Warriors leap over Dimond (17-8, 12-4) in the American Division standings and Chugiak (17-11, 12-5) in the overall standings.

The top eight teams in the state qualify for the state tourney, which starts July 25 at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.

Wasilla attacked South ace Nick Jensen late to score the win over the Wolverines Wednesday. Trailing 4-3, Wasilla tallied three in the sixth and four in the seventh to jump ahead.

“He was throwing good for four or five innings,” Thompson said of Jensen. “We had a couple of nice hits, but weren’t really hitting the ball well early. In the last two innings, it was just line drive after line drive.”

Ben Ross helped power Wasilla to the win. The infielder was 3 for 3 with two RBIs in the victory. Ross knocked a ball out of the park, and doubled off the wall later in the game. Josh Boyer was also 3 for 3, and Tyler Hansen finished 3 for 4 with an RBI and run scored.

Dalton McHugill pitched a complete game to earn the win. He struck out six and walked two.

Wasilla will play its final four games of the regular season in Ketchikan. The stretch starts today with a nonleague game at 6:30 p.m. A doubleheader of league games is slated for Saturday. The teams will play another nonleague contest on Sunday.

Wasilla 13, West 1

WASILLA — Eric McEnnis fanned seven of the nine batters he faced to help Wasilla score a 13-1 win over West Anchorage at McManus Field in Wasilla Tuesday night.

Tyler Hansen collected a hit, three runs and two RBIs. Tyler Boensch tripled in the victory, and drove in four runs. Matt Palmer and Dalton McHugill scored two runs each.

Juneau splits with Valley

WASILLA — Juneau split a doubleheader with a pair of Valley programs Tuesday afternoon in Wasilla.

The Wasilla Road Warriors blanked Juneau 6-0.

Nolan Monaghan threw a complete-game shutout. The Wasilla starter scattered eight hits and fanned seven batters. Monaghan didn’t walk a hitter in the win.

Ben Ross finished 3 for 4 with a triple. Matt Palmer and Josh Boyer were both 2 for 4 with a run. Mitchell Chauvin and Dalton McHugill had two RBIs each.

Later in the day, Juneau beat the Palmer Pioneers 21-5.

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