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Major League StateBy ANDREW MILLER Sentinel Staff Writer In the first inning of Saturday’s Major: League State Championship game, the Sitka All-Stars scored nearly as many runs off Dimond West as the reigning state champions had allowed in the previous eight games.Then Dimond West settled in and cruised to its ihird-conseculive state title. The Anchorage-area district champions defeated Sitka 7-3 Saturday and 10-0 Sunday in the state championship at Vilandre Memorial Field, earning an .invitation to the Northwest Regional Tournament next week in San Bernardino, Calif.Sitka, which went undefeated through last week’s District II Tournament, has finished second in the state two years in a row in the.' ll-ands.lIi-year-oId7lt;iivision. Sitka won- its*last MajotSLeague state title in 1989., “After game one we said we thought (Sitka was) the best team we played all year,” Dimond West Manager Brad Lauwers said. “They kind of demanded our attention.”“It’s a great bunch of kids that have been together and played on championship teams since they were 9 and 10,” Sitka Manager Brian Hanson said of his team.“We told them, we’re just getting started. There’s real baseball on the big field to play, and I know you’re going.to see them playing for championships for years,” Hanson added.Last year, the Dimond West All-Stars breezed through Alaska Regional play, defeating Sitka 7-0 in the state championship game. They then went 3-1 in the Northwest Regional round-robin tournament, before falling 7-8 in the seminfmals to the eventual tournament champions from Washington.With three starting players back from last year, Lauwers said he expects Dimond West to make another run at the Northwest championship. He said his team outscored its opponents 142-4 in the District I tournament and appears just as dominant as last year.: “I kind of knew this team was that calibre, and I would have been disappointed if they hadn’t gone this far,” he said. Each team kind of paves the way for the next year’s team.” While the Sitka All-Stars proved themselves all weekend as fundamentally sound players, Dimond West had the edge from the start with a group of much larger players, who were faster on the base paths and more powerful with their bats.* ‘We draw a lot of smaller kids, and we’ll eventually catch up with those kids,” Hanson said. “It makes a difference being from a small town.” Despite being out-sized, the SitkaAll-Stars showed no signs of being intimidated Saturday, as they erased an early 3-0 deficit with 3 runs in the bottom of the first inning.Luke Clayton led off the first inning with a walk for Sitka. Casey Chapman followed with another walk and Michael Matz reached first on an error to load the bases.Anthony Perkins sent Clayton . 'home with a hit that went between the first baseman’s legs, and Max Hanson followed with a sacrifice RBI. Ryne Sorenson had Sitka's third RBI on a sacrifice fly to left field that sent Matz home and tied the game 3-3.After allowing two walks and an RBI double by Cory Clevenger in the first inning, Perkins adjusted on the mound for Sitka and kept Dimond West off‘the' score,board t for the -pext rtwo innings;• ,, VU.•-Dylan Lauwers' threatened'ttf siore for Dimond West in the second inning, but was thrown out at the plate.In the fourth inning, Dimond West’s Randell So scored after reaching base on a walk to put his team ahead 4-3. In the fifth inning, Dimond West went ahead 5-3 on a run by Stephen Bezousek.Dimond West scored its final 2 runs . on three hits and an intentional walk in the sixth inning.Clevenger held Sitka to three hits Saturday, with Carlos reaching base safely in the first inning, Clayton hitting an infield single in the fifth inning and Chapman hitting a single to right field in the fifth inning.Perkins had six strikeouts in six innings Saturday, while Clevenger had five strikeouts for Dimond West.On Sunday, the game scheduled for 3 p.m. was delayed 40 minutes by rain and eventually reschedule for 6 p.m.When the game finally started, Sitka got off to another fast start by loading the bases on three walks in the first inning. However, none of Sitka’s base runners managed to score.The Dimond West All-Stars took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a 3-run homer by Clevenger. They never looked back.Clevenger doubled and scored as part of a 3-run third inning for Di-mond West, before Dimond West scored 4 runs in the fifth inning to secure the £0-0 victory.Derek Jones had Sitka's lone hit of the game, a single up the middle in the second inning. Otherwise, 11-year-old Garrett Brown was perfect for Dimond West, preventing a single baserunncr in the final three innings.Cole Venneberg had three strikeouts in five innings on the mound for Sitka.Keith Perkins and Steve Clayton joined Hanson as coaches of the Sitka All-Stars.
Newspaper Details
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Sitka, Alaska, US
Mon, Aug 01, 2005
Page 4
Full Page
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USA 13 Dec 2023
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