The Wasilla and Soldotna baseball teams played to a 5-5 tie Thursday in nonconference play in Wasilla.
“It’s nonconference and it was cold and there’s no point in burning up pitchers for a nonconference game,” said Soldotna coach Robb Quelland after his record settled at 1-0-1.
Despite the tie, Quelland said the game was very well-played, with both teams battling back and forth.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Warriors had the bases loaded with one out, but SoHi shortstop Caleb Spence was able to turn a 6-3 double play to end the threat.
Quelland said his pitchers did a great job holding down Wasilla’s potent attack. Jake Marcuson went 3 2-3 innings and gave up two hits and three runs — two earned. Cody Quelland pitched two innings and gave up two runs on two hits. Jeremy Kupferschmid pitched a scoreless inning.
At the plate, Kupferschmid was 2 for 4 with a run, and Hunter Thompson was 2 for 3 with a run.
SoHi stays on the road to jump into conference play, with Colony at 1:30 p.m. today and Wasilla at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Colony 19, Kenai 9, 5 inn.
The Kardinals lost their season and Southcentral Conference opener on the road to the Knights.
Kenai coach Luke Oliver said the Knights were hitting the ball well, but his team also had some errors. Considering the Kardinals had just been on the field six times, Oliver was not surprised by the errors.
“Overall, I don’t think we played terribly bad,” Oliver said.
Kenai also hit the ball well. Harold Ochea was 2 for 4 with a double and two runs, Caleb Smith was 2 for 3 and Knox Amend was 2 for 3.
Oliver said about half of his team has seen live pitching, and virtually nobody on the team has seen live pitching this season.
“We made good adjustments as the game progressed,” he said. “We were making better contact and hitting the ball more squarely.”
Kenai stays on the road to face Wasilla today at 6:30 p.m.
