In a pair of run-rule shortened games, the Sitka High School Wolves softball team defeated the Soldotna Stars 16-4 and the Kenai Kardinals 20-6 to open the ASAA/First National Bank Alaska District II Softball State Championships at Anchorage’s Cartee Fields on Thursday.
“We have quite a few of our players that this is their third year at state,” Sitka coach Jael McCarty said. “We won last year, got second the year before that and most of our players were part of that for one or two years. We just have a couple that haven’t been up here yet.
"I think the value of our experience is that our players are really calm and know that if you do what you have done all season long you are going to be fine and they don’t put all that pressure on themselves that the new players kind of do. These girls are just like, ‘Hey, it’s another day, this is the business we are in.’ And we just hit and we field routine balls and then we field some of the great balls and that’s how you win a game.”
Thursday’s games were in pool play to determine seeding for today’s double-elimination bracket play for the remainder of the tournament.
Against Northern Lights Conference second-place finisher Soldotna, the Southeast Conference champion Wolves put up 3 runs in the first inning and never trailed in their opening state game.
Senior Kaelynn Balovich had the Wolves’ first state hit and sophomore courtesy runner Brandy Pepper replaced Balovich and was moved to second after junior Alina Lebahn was hit by a pitch and junior Chalice Brenton took the third pitch offered to her and put the ball over the center field fence to clear the bases.
Soldotna scored 2 runs in the bottom half of the first inning but the rest of the game belonged to the pitching of Sitka’s Lebahn and her fielding teammates behind her.
Sitka scored 3 runs in the top of the third inning as Brenton watched two balls outside the zone and took the third pitch deep over the left field fence with Lebahn on base waiting to come home.
“After the first two pitches I had it pretty timed up being fourth in the lineup,” Brenton said. “I’ll be completely honest, I blanked and sent my hands to the pitcher, made contact, sent it and it went up pretty high. I thought it was going to drop in front of the fence but it went over so that was very relieving when I got to first base.”
Senior Madison Campbell singled, advanced on a single by sophomore Penelope Blankenship, and scored on an error for a 6-2 lead.
Seven runs in the top of the fourth inning and another 3 in the top of the fifth shortened the game to five innings after Soldotna could scrape up only 2 runs in their final at bat.
Brenton tallied two home runs in the opener and five RBI to lead the Wolves.
“My second one I honed in on a little bit more,” Brenton said. “Both of them came in thigh height, close right down the middle, kind of meatballs… I think my team is being very supportive and is very proud of me, which I appreciate a lot. It does feel like a family. I’ve grown up with a lot of siblings, a big number of family members, so having ‘sisters’ is actually very nice for a season length of time. It is very easy to power through a game when you know you have 15 girls rooting for you.”
Junior Sadie Saline and Campbell had two RBI apiece; Balovich, junior Delayna Barry and sophomore Vada West had one each.
Balovich and Bristol Clifton led the Wolves with three hits apiece, Brenton and Campbell two apiece, West, Blankenship, Campbell, Saline and Lebahn one each.
Lebahn and Brenton scored 3 runs apiece, Saline and Blankenship 2 apiece and Campbell, West and Clifton 1 each.
Lebahn pitched the five innings, allowing just four hits and 4 runs, walking four batters and striking out three.
“I really love that you set a goal for your team and they attack and do it,” coach McCarty said. “Our goal is to save our pitcher’s arms as much as possible and save our catcher’s knees and you kind of do that by going in and getting on the games early. And they attacked it, took it to heart and got it done in both games.”
Against NLC third-place finisher Kenai, the Wolves again took a first inning lead, this time putting 8 runs across and added 4 more in the top of the second to take a 12-0 advantage.
The Kardinals scored their 6 runs in the bottom of the second inning and watched as Sitka added a run in the third inning, 2 in the fourth and 5 in the fifth inning. The Wolves outhit the Kardinals 11-3 in the game and had just one error in the field.
“Our fielding has been stellar this whole season,” McCarty said. “Especially the last three weekends, it has been phenomenal.”
Sitka junior Allyson Mayville led the Wolves with five RBI, four hits and 3 runs scored and had seven putouts from her shortstop position in the two games. Coaches credit her “canon arm” and “Sports Center highlight plays” as heady and the mainstay of the Wolves’ infield, which includes senior Audrey Brevick at third base, Campbell at second and Clifton at first.
“The main thing is just having confidence in yourself and your team,” Mayville said. “Knowing that even if things don’t go my way I’ve got my left field backing me up and centerfield backing me up and everyone is there to pick me up after.”
Shortstop is the most instinctive position on the field and Mayville has taken to heart instruction from coach McCarty.
“A prep step is pretty important,” Mayville said. “Mine is like two steps (forward), and right as our pitcher releases I do a little hop, I guess. It was something we were big on last year and Jael introduced it and I tried it, and it keeps me on my toes and not back on my heels planted… I’m really confident in myself and my teammates right now. I think as long as we go into each game knowing our abilities and our strengths and just being able to pick each other up there are not any doubts in my mind right now. We’ve been playing good defense, hitting the ball and getting on pitchers early. I don’t think there's any reason to have any doubts.”
Against Kenai, Lebahn, Brenton and West had two RBI each and Balovich, Saline, Barry, Clifton and Blankenship one each. Balovich had three hits, West two and Campbell, Barry and Blankenship one each. Balovich and Blankenship scored 3 runs apiece, Campbell and Clifton 2 apiece and Lebahn, Brenton, Saline, West and Barry 1 each.
Barry pitched two innings, allowed three hits and 6 runs, walked three batters and struck out one. Campbell relieved for three innings, walked one and struck out three. Sitka was to get a bye to start later in today’s bracket play, in which teams play through Saturday until reaching the championship game or being eliminated with two losses.
SEC runner-up Ketchikan defeated Mid Alaska Conference champion Delta 11-3 and lost to NLC champion Kodiak 10-9 to open play Thursday. The Lady Kings opened today play against Kenai and the winner was to play Sitka at noon.
Kodiak had an early bye and awaited the winner of Soldotna and Delta.
In boys state tournament action the Sitka Wolves put their undefeated 18-0 season record (24-2-1 overall) on the line at 4 p.m. today in a semifinal against the Colony Knights (14-9). The winner advances to the 4:30 p.m. Saturday state championship, the loser plays in the 1:30 p.m. Saturday 3rd/5th place game.
Sitka defeated South Anchorage 3-1 to open state play on Thursday behind 15 strikeouts from junior Caleb Calhoun and two RBI from senior Tyson Bartolaba.
Colony defeated Dimond 6-1 behind two RBI apiece from senior Brock Baker and sophomore Hayden Sherman. Knights senior shortstop Boman Marks has a 0.552 on base percentage.
Today’s second semifinal was to be Eagle River (16-4-2) – a 10-0 winner over Wasilla (18-7-1) – facing Service (19-4) – 5-0 winner over Juneau-Douglas.
