By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Sitka High baseball team split their first two games of the season on the opening day of their home Invitational Tournament Thursday at Moller Field.
The Wolves fell 8-4 to the two-time Alaska State tournament runner-up South Anchorage Wolverines to open tourney play and then stopped the Thunder Mountain Falcons 3-1 to end the night of diamond action.
“We got to see one of the tougher teams in the state and one of the most competitive,” Sitka head coach Ken Carley said. “We did well against both, better against the lower-seeded team. That’s how it works in baseball, you never know.”
Against South, the Wolverines struck early in their first at-bat despite some solid field plays by Sitka.
Wolves sophomore third baseman Trevin Carley scooped up a hard ground ball running to his left with runners on first and second and tagged out the lead Wolverine to delay the South offense. The Wolverines did load the bases and score on a sacrifice fly on a tough catch by senior left fielder Brady Massey-Jones.
“That was a great play,” Carley said. “We would have had that game if we continued playing as good of defense as we started out with. Our fielding is pretty sharp but it did let us down that game.”
South added 3 runs in the second inning to lead 4-0.
Sitka scored their first run of the season in the bottom of the third inning as Carley singled to center field, scoring senior Bryce Kelly.
South added a run in the fourth inning and 2 in the fifth.
Sitka put two more runs across in the bottom of the fifth, showing what should be expected as the teams work into season shape.
Junior lead-off hitter Gavin Flores earned a walk and disrupted the entire Wolverines infield as he stole second and third base, then scored along with Kelly on a single by senior Morgan Simic to trail 7-3.
South put their final run across in the top of the seventh inning and Sitka followed suit as Flores led off with a single to right and reached second on the play. Flores then stole third base and senior Cole Riggs was hit by a pitch. Kelly hit a sacrifice fly to center field scoring Flores for the 8-4 score.
Flores went 1-3 at the plate, scored 2 runs, 1 walk and 1 strikeout; Kelly 0-3 (2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB), Simic 1-3 (2 RBI, 1 BB, 2 SO), Carley 1-4 (1 RBI), sophomore Emanuel Barragan 1-3, Riggs 0-1 (2 BB, 1 SO), freshman Nik Calhoun 0-2 (1 BB. 1 SO), senior James Comas 0-3 (3 SO), Massey-Jones 0-2 (2 SO), junior Myles Magee 0-1 (1 SO). Sitka left 7 runners on base.
ABOVE: Sitka sophomore Emanuel Barragan connects on a pitch against South Anchorage Thursday at Moller Field during the Sitka Invitational baseball tournament. BELOW: A Ketchikan Kings base runner is safe at second base against the Thunder Mountain Falcons today at Moller Field during the Sitka Invitational Baseball Tournament. Action continues through Saturday. (Sentinel Photos by Klas Stolpe)
Comas went 4 innings on the mound, throwing 84 pitches, striking out 3 batters and walking 2, giving up 5 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits and 2 errors, and earning 3 groundouts and 4 flyouts; Magee threw 1 inning (20 P, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB) earning 1 GO, 1 FO; Flores 1 inning (23 P, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB) with 1 GO, 2 FO; and sophomore Izaac Roth 1 inning (12 P) earning 3 fly outs.
South’s Ricky Gatter went 2-5 (2 R, 2 RBI) and Reid Brock 2-3 (2 R, 2 RBI) to lead the Wolverines. South left 10 runners on base in the game. The Wolverine’s Brody Jessee threw 4 innings (79 P, 2 H, 1 R, 8 SO, 4 BB) and reliever Austin DeLesline 3 IP (54 P, 2 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 SO, 2 BB).
Against Thunder Mountain, Sitka relied on timely fielding to stop the Falcons 3-1, despite being out-hit 10-2 and the Falcons leaving 11 runners on base to the Wolves 6.
“We only actually had those two hits and one of them should not have been a hit,” Carley said. “The majority of our base runners were walks. Our first hit was kind of ugly, it was a mental error on their part. We definitely did not hit last night and it was against pitching that we should have been all over. That is what we need to work on. The guy from South they threw against us had to be in the mid 80’s and our second time through the lineup we started catching up with him real well, but for some reason we couldn’t hit the guy throwing 50 miles an hour from Thunder Mountain. We had some really good swings in but they weren’t dropping for hits.”
The first run of the game came across in the bottom of the fourth inning as Sitka’s Kelly led off with a double, advanced to third on walks to Carley and Calhoun, and scored when Massey-Jones was hit by a pitch.
Sitka scored again in the bottom of the fifth as Flores earned a walk, advanced to third on a Riggs single, and scored as Kelly hit a fielder’s choice to short.
Sitka junior Gavin Flores leads off third base during the Wolves loss to South Anchorage on Thursday. (Sentinel Photos by Klas Stolpe)
Thunder Mountain put a run across in the top of the sixth and Sitka answered in the bottom half as Comas led off with a walk, advanced on walks to Massey-Jones and Flores, and stole home to score on a wild pitch with Kelly at bat.
“Bryce (Kelly) has to swing the bat,” Carley said. “He is one of our best hitters.”
Kelly also came through with a top defensive play of the game, fielding a hard ground ball and putting out the batter with the bases loaded in the sixth inning, and Comas fielded a triple in left and threw to Kelly at short who cut down a runner at home plate in the third inning.
Kelly went 1-4 at the plate (1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SO), Flores 0-1 (1 R, 2 BB), Comas 0-2 (1 R, 1 BB), Riggs 1-4, Simic 0-2 (1 BB), Carley 0-2 (1 BB, 1 SO), Calhoun 0-1 (2 BB), and Massey-Jones 0-0 (1 RBI, 2 BB). Barragan threw a complete game, with 90 pitches across seven innings (10 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 SO, 1 BB) for the win. TMHS’ Logan Lesman had 4 IP (72 P, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB), Chase Foster 1.1 IP (45 P, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 SO, 4 BB), and Stone Morgan 0.2 IP (7 P, 1 SO). Bryson Echiverri, Morgan and Brennon Ludeman had 2 hits apiece for the Falcons.
The Sitka Invitational continues through Saturday.
“I’m expecting some good games,” Carley said. “We have Ketchikan first today and Juneau later and will go with two of our better pitchers. As long as our defense holds up I think we will be OK.”
Trevin Carley will pitch today against Ketchikan at 2 p.m. and Bryce Kelly will start against Juneau-Douglas tonight at 7 p.m. according to coach Carley. JDHS plays South at 11:30 a.m. and TMHS plays South at 4 p.m. (scores not available by press time). Thursday, JDHS beat TMHS 10-0 and KTN beat JDHS 11-6.
