TRUCK FIRE – Firefighters knock down a fire in a Ford Explorer truck in Arrowhead Trailer Park in the 1200 block of Sawmill Creek Road Saturday evening. One person received fire-related injuries and was taken to the hospital, Sitka Fire Department Chief Craig Warren said, and the truck was considered a total loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Warren said. The fire hall received the call about the fire at 5:33 p.m., and one fire engine with eight firefighters and an ambulance were dispatched, he said. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Wolves Baseball Needs Bats For Region V Tournament
By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
The defending state champion Sitka High School Wolves baseball team is searching for its lost bats.
Coming off a three-game home stand against Juneau-Douglas in which they generated just seven hits, and approaching the region tournament in which their home field advantage has resulted in a losing record at Moller Field, the Wolves have to wonder if someone moved the outfield fence back 10 yards, or if 1939 MLB hall of farmer “Wee Willie” Keeler’s motto “Keep your eye on the ball and hit ’em where they ain’t” is just that: a motto.
Gavin Flores scores a run Saturday on Moller Field. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
“That’s the good question, the million dollar question,” Sitka coach Kenny Carley said. “Our guys are just having a hard time seeing the fast ball. I am not sure what it is.”
The Wolves got two hits in Friday’s 6-0 loss to the Crimson Bears in Sitka, and struck out 12 times.
JDHS’ Kasey Watts threw the complete game and walked just one batter.
Sitka’s Gavin Flores led off with a single in the first inning but was caught stealing (the side had two strikeouts). The Wolves were struck out in the second, and Kyler Brenton earned a walk in the third but was out on a fielder’s choice (two additional strikeouts).
The club had a ground out, fly out and strike out in the fourth, a pop out and ground out in the fifth (one strike out), and Jagr McGraw singled in the sixth but was out on a fielder’s choice advancing to second (two additional strikeouts).
The Wolves again made contact in the seventh but grounded out twice (one strikeout).
Morgan Simic limited JDHS to 2 runs in the first and one more late, allowing just four hits over his six innings of work. JDHS added 3 runs in their final at bat on relief pitcher James Comas.
Sitka got two hits in a 3-2 loss on Saturday.
Sitka’s runs came in the fifth. McGraw earned a walk and stole second. Flores walked and McGraw advanced to third on a passed ball. McGraw scored on a Snyder single to left field and Flores scored on a double steal with Snyder.
The Wolves got solid pitching from Suarez through seven innings, with one mishap in the sixth that saw the Crimson Bears’ Watts hit a home run with two runners on.
Dale took the win for JDHS, striking out five and walking five in the full seven innings.
“Our pitching and our fielding are great,” Carley said. “We have a state team for that and a region quality team for that. We just need to start hitting the ball. We had our best guys out there on the mound and kept them to limited hits, too, but we just weren’t able to push guys across or get guys on.”
Sitka had five hits in Saturday’s second game, a 4-1 loss, and struck out just four times.
Vaughn Blankenship threw 5.1 innings and struck out nine, walked four and allowed just 2 runs. Kyler Brenton relieved, allowing two hits, 2 runs and striking out one batter and walking three.
JDHS scored a run in the first and sixth innings, and 2 in the seventh.
“I don’t get it. We’re getting a lot of down-the-middle fast balls and are just not able to square them up. That is the biggest problem,” Carley said. “We’re putting a lot of balls in play, we just aren’t hitting the ball square to make something happen with it.”
Sitka had a similar slump last season but the one-run games went in their favor and they small-balled through the region and state tournaments.
“We’ve been having this slump for a couple weeks now, so I think we’re about to open it up, I hope,” Carley said. “It’s going to have to be a lot of small ball from here on out. We’ve got just a couple guys who are actually hitting the ball hard and we will let them swing away. But everyone else will have to be small ball, hopefully bunting, moving guys over. That is all we can do at this point.”
The double-elimination format Region V Tournament begins Thursday at Moller Field.
The Wolves are 2-8 overall at home this season and open tournament play as the four seed (5-7 league record) against fifth-seed Petersburg (0-12) at noon. The winner plays again at 6 p.m. against top-seed Ketchikan (11-1). Second-seed JDHS (9-3) plays third-seed Thunder Mountain (5-7) at 3 p.m.
“We can’t rely on a repeat of last season,” Carley said. “We have to work for it. It’s a lot more painful when you’re not ready and lose than when you work hard and lose – at least you know you put all you got into it. We can’t afford to lose any games now. We just need to get on base, and work from there. If we can’t get on base we can’t score runs. If we can put four or five runs across the plate each game we will win it.”
Ketchikan has secured one of the two bids to the state tourney by virtue of winning the regular season. The Wolves beat the Kings twice in their three-game season series at Moller Field but had to forfeit one win due to a pitch count violation.
Sitka will need to be playing against Ketchikan in the championship game or need to win against whoever else is in the championship game for the chance to defend their state title.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Businesses using the Centennial Hall parking lot testified Tuesday against a proposal to charge them rent in addition to the $200 annual permit fee. City Administrator Hugh Bevan made the proposal in response to the Assembly’s direction to Centennial Hall manager Don Kluting to try to close the $340,000 gap between building revenues and operational costs.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand President William S. Paul Sr. will be special guest and speaker at the local ANB, Alaska Native Sisterhood Founders Day program Monday at the ANB Hall.