Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitka All Stars Wrap Up Season Down South

By GARLAND KENNEDY

Sentinel Sports Editor

A week after claiming the state championship baseball title in a one-on-one tournament against Ketchikan, the Sitka Junior League All Stars team made it deep into the Western Region tournament before being eliminated after their fourth game in Bend, Oregon.

In the double elimination bracket, Sitka led off with a 15-4 win over Oregon’s team on August 4, but then fell 12-1 to Hawaii the next day.

With no room for error, Sitka stayed in the game and beat Wyoming 15-4 on August 6. But following that, Washington’s squad ended Sitka’s regional tournament run on August 7, in a 14-3 game.

Hawaii won the regional title by defeating Southern California’s team 16-3 Thursday.

Looking back on the 2-2 tournament run, Sitka catcher Nate White, 14, was happy with his team’s performance, but noted that the squad wasn’t entirely consistent.

“When we went down to Bend, we got a couple games where we played really well as a team, and we had one or two off games, which is kind of the reason I think that we lost,” he said.

Sitka would often open a game strong, White said, giving the team an early edge.

“When we were the visiting team (batting first), we would normally jump out and score a bunch of runs in the first inning and that would get our morale and team spirit up. And that would help us on the defensive end,” the catcher said.

But while that early surge helped Sitka against Oregon and Wyoming, the 13- and 14-year-old athletes couldn’t repeat the performance against Hawaii or Washington.

For Josh McAlpin, the tournament was a redux of his 2019 Western Region tournament run.

But in ’19, Sitka went 0-2, a far cry from their 2-2 record this month.

Evan Grant was also on the 2019 squad. He said this year the team was more calm going into the tournament.

“In 2019, it was our first time going down south and we were really nervous and this year we were more relaxed when we were playing,” Grant, 14, said over the phone.

McAlpin, 14, was happy for the chance to compete against a variety of new teams.

“It was pretty cool to be around all those other states and their teams… Alaska doesn’t really normally get this far into the tournament so we wanted to get as far as possibly could,” he said.

Like White, McAlpin said the team “had really good energy, we got the momentum and we kept it.”

Through the tournament, team coordination improved too, Zander Dumag, also 14, said.

“Definitely communication got a lot better throughout our games,” Dumag added.

Grant said positive team dynamics helped propel Sitka through the bracket.

“Our team bonding was really good. I don’t know, we just played really good together as a team,” Grant said

At 14, White and McAlpin will be too old to compete with the All Stars again next summer.

Sitka’s team did well down south, coach Rich McAlpin told the newspaper via text, but a few more hits could have yielded another win.

“They did great, a few more timely hits (and) maybe we could have done better. They all gave 100 percent – real proud of the entire team,” the coach said.

Regardless of the scoreboard, both players highlighted the convivial nature of their teammates, many of whom have played baseball together for years.

“Just living with all my friends for a couple of weeks, that was probably the most fun,” White told the Sentinel.

McAlpin seconded this.

“Probably, honestly, in the last game I had a really good defensive game, me personally, and probably being around the team, just other activities and stuff like that… We didn’t do that much but when we did do something we went bowling and they had a huge river you could ride in rafts,” McAlpin said.

In hindsight, White thinks Sitka fielded one of the better teams in the tournament.

“There were teams of all different skill levels. There were some teams that weren’t so good and some teams that are pretty good. But as far as talent goes, I think we were up there with the best of the teams,” he said.