By KLAS STOLPE
Sitka Sentinel Writer
The Sitka High baseball team dropped a pair of 1-run losses during the last day of their invitational baseball tournament at Moller Field on Saturday, falling 7-6 to Thunder Mountain in a mid-day clash and 9-8 to South Anchorage in a nightcap that closed action but showed the promise of the Wolves this season.
“I really liked how our hitters approached the plate against South,” Sitka coach Ken Carley said. “They hit the ball really well.”
Sophomore Emmanuel Barragan went 2-5 at the plate with 2 RBI, senior Cole Riggs was 1-3 with 3 runs scored, junior Gavin Flores earned 3 walks and scored 3 runs, senior Morgan Simic had 1 RBI, senior Bryce Kelly was 1-4 with 2 RBI and 1 run scored, sophomore Trevin Carley scored 1 run, and junior Kyler Brenton went 1-2.
“Our defense really let us down, though,” Carley said. “We should have actually won that game 8-3 if you take away our errors. A couple in the outfield and a couple in the infield. That was our biggest downfall of the weekend. Our defense wasn’t quite up to par yet. Just routine balls, it was early season jitters for the most part.”
Sitka was leading 6-5 in the fourth inning and had two outs when they had a series of errors that allowed the Wolverines to put 4 runs across for a 9-5 advantage.
Sitka got their last two runs in the top of the fifth inning when Simic doubled in Flores and Riggs.
Sitka senior third baseman Morgan Simic throws to first base against Thunder Mountain on Saturday. (Sentinel Photo by Klas Stolpe)
Senior Austin Morrison threw four innings, giving up 6 hits and 9 runs (5 earned) and Flores relieved for two innings.
“He probably would have made a complete game out of it if it hadn’t been for our defense,” Carley said.
“There is that 100 pitch limit and we got him up to 92 I believe. And 30 of those pitches were after those errors, which is huge,” Carley said.
The first inning Morrison had a nine pitch inning and the Wolves were up 4-0.
The second inning Morrison had 27 pitches and was leaving the ball at the hitters’ waists, and South got the runs back.
Sitka senior Austin Morrison delivers a pitch against South Anchorage at Moller Field. Above Right, Sitka junior Gavin Flores steals home plate on a pitch as batter Keaton Koelling holds his swing during the Wolves 7-6 loss to Thunder Mountain on Saturday. (Sentinel Photo by Klas Stolpe)
“That was just jitters for him,” Carley said.
The Wolves lost four of six contests during the invitational tournament.
“We clean up our defense and we win five of those six,” Carley said. “It was just costly errors at the wrong moments.”
Against Thunder Mountain, Flores had the play of the tournament when he stole home.
“The previous pitch he had a good lead and the pitcher never looked over at him once,” Carley said. “I told Gavin if the pitcher didn’t look at him again to just go, and I gave our hitter the sign to not swing so he wouldn’t take a bat to the head. I think he was across the plate before the ball got there, he had such a big jump.”
Sitka junior Gavin Flores steals home plate on a pitch as batter Keaton Koelling holds his swing during the Wolves 7-6 loss to Thunder Mountain on Saturday. (Sentinel Photo by Klas Stolpe)
Carley said most of the Wolves are base savvy, and improved hitting during the season will mean even more action on the base paths.
“Our hitting is as good, almost, as I was expecting,” Carley said. “We need to work on swinging with two strikes, though; one thing I don’t want to see is a third strike coming down the middle.”
Carley said Barragan pitched the best game he has seen in a couple of years in the Wolves 3-1 win over the Falcons on Thursday, aside from performances by Camden Suarez last season.
“It was one of those games where if your pitcher does well enough you will win .... we didn’t back him up with hits,” Carley said. “He was on all night, and he was one of our top two hitters over the weekend as well.”
Carley said he put too much pressure on the Wolves three, four, five hitters in the lineup.
“I told Simic, Kelly, and Trevin (Carley) that they had to carry the team,” he said. “They were all just slightly off this weekend and that’s on me, but they still did well and overall our hitters were doing good. Everyone was doing their job, it’s just a matter of being a little more selective at the plate.”
On Friday the Wolves fell 11-2 to Ketchikan and topped Juneau-Douglas 10-5.
“The Ketchikan game is the only one we should have lost,” Carley said. “They played poorly but they still beat us. We only had two hits in that game, which isn’t going to win any game. I’m happy though; I know exactly what we need to work on.”
The Wolves are off this weekend. The junior varsity team travels to Ketchikan.
Tournament scores:
Thursday - SA 8 SIT 4; JDHS 10 TMHS 0; SIT 3 TMHS 1.
Friday - KTN 10 TMHS 3; KTN 11 SIT 2; TMHS 7 SA 5; SIT 10 JDHS 5.
Saturday - JDHS 8 KTN 8; TMHS 7 SIT 6; SA 3 KTN 3; SA 9 SIT 8.
