By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Local baseball players on the Sitka Storm club team returned to form at a tournament down south over the weekend, splitting their four games 2-2 to take second in their bracket in the Summer Slam tournament in Tacoma.
After two years without a baseball squad competing out of state, Sitka pitcher and shortstop Chance Coleman was glad to be back.
“It feels great. I mean, it’s surreal to be playing down south for my first tournament back… We were all having fun, it felt great, the weather was great. Win or lose we were all having fun,” Coleman said over the phone.
In the first game, Sitka fell 10-6 to the Washington Rush Blue, but Sitka pulled out a 4-3 win over Prime Athletics. In the silver bracket, Sitka toppled Harbor Hit Dog 4-3 before falling in the championship game to Gig Harbor, 8-6.
He recalled the feeling of his return to travel baseball.
“It felt great, I was feeling good down south. I was throwing a lot of strikes and no one could really hit off me,” the 14-year-old said. Coleman is a rising high school freshman and plans to play baseball for the Sitka High Wolves.
The Sitka Storm baseball team poses for a shot this weekend in Tacoma. The team played four games in the tournament, winning two and losing two to claim second place in the silver bracket. (Photo provided by Rich McAlpin)
For fans of the Sitka Little League, Coleman will play with the Juniors Baseball All Stars squad this weekend and next week against Ketchikan. He’s excited to see how his teammates have developed since 2019.
“I’m just looking forward to playing with the same kids from 2019 to see how they’ve progressed and see how we’ve progressed,” he said.
Looking back, he noted that the loss of the summer 2020 baseball season to COVID took a significant personal toll on him.
“I just kind of lost motivation, and then once we started playing I’ve been feeling great,” Colman said.
Coleman’s teammate, first baseman Josh Gluth, also was happy for the chance to play baseball teams from outside of Alaska.
“It was fun just having fun outside playing baseball, doing fun stuff as a team,” Gluth said. While this wasn’t his first travel baseball trip of the year – he played in Phoenix earlier in the summer – Tacoma was his first trip with a Sitka team since before the pandemic.
He stressed the team bonding activities such as swimming and a team dinner that took place on the trip.
As for the gameplay, Gluth noted that all four games were tight.
“They were pretty well fought games, they were usually pretty close. We didn’t get stomped on and we didn’t stomp the other teams,” he said. Gluth is also 14 and will be a freshman this fall.
Looking forward to the series against Ketchikan, his goal was straightforward, though not necessarily easy:
“Reclaim our name as the best in the state,” Gluth said.
Looking back, team manager Rich McAlpin was happy with how his team performed.
“We went 2-2, we split our first day in pool play and we ended up getting into the silver bracket. And we won our first game there, so that put us in the championship, and we lost to a team from Gig Harbor 8-6,” McAlpin told the Sentinel. “But overall we practiced for two and a half weeks, went down there and played, and the boys did well.”
In the tournament, Sitka tended to be down in the first innings but bounced back, he said.
“In just about almost all our games, we were behind from the beginning and the boys stayed in the game,” he said, “and we steadily rallied and we came back to win two of them and we fell two runs short in the championship.”
Looking back on that final game, McAlpin noted that the Sitka Storm put runners on bases and were just one solid hit away from evening the score. But that didn’t happen.
He highlighted the team’s defensive abilities.
“Our defense has been pretty good, we were fortunate enough to play on another turf field our first two games down there… but the next day we played our first game and championship game on a dirt infield and the boys were able to make the adjustment,” McAlpin said.
The team returned to Sitka Monday. The manager was thankful for the families that supported the team, from fundraising to filming. In a GoFundMe campaign that ended earlier this month, the team raised $975 from a dozen donors to finance the trip to Tacoma.
Much like his players, Coach Ryan Gluth appreciated the chance to play baseball down south.
“It was great, a great experience and our team did really well and the weather was good. It was a good tournament all around,” the coach said.
For Gluth, while solid gameplay is important, the highlight of baseball is watching the players enjoy the sport.
“Seeing the players just really enjoy baseball and play some new teams,” he said. “Our team as a whole on every level did really well hitting, and just really enjoying seeing the smiles on their faces playing baseball. That’s what it’s really all about, having fun.”
With the Ketchikan games starting Saturday, Gluth was happy for another chance to compete.
“Seeing them all come together on one team is a great experience. And just competing against other communities in our regions and our state,” he said.
However, as far as gameplay and team dynamics go, Ketchikan’s All Stars squad is a mystery for now
“We don’t know a whole lot – the last time we played them was in 2019,” Gluth said.
The Sitka and Ketchikan All Stars squads face off for the first time on Saturday at 4 p.m. on Moller Field. The seven-game series is set to be played as Sitka experiences its most severe coronavirus surge of the pandemic so far.
