Division II state baseball: SoHi, Kenai, Monroe, North Pole move to semifinals

The Division II state baseball semifinals will feature Soldotna vs. Monroe Catholic and North Pole vs. Kenai Central on Friday at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai.

The Stars defeated Houston 7-4 and the Rams defeated Kodiak 3-0 to set up a 3:30 p.m. clash. Soldotna, the three-time defending champs, haven’t seen the Rams this season.

The Kardinals defeated Homer 18-13 and the Patriots topped Palmer 31-12 to set up a 6:15 p.m. tilt. The two teams haven’t played this season, but North Pole did defeat Kenai in the state semifinals last season.

In the fourth-place semifinals, Houston and Kodiak play at 10 a.m., and Palmer and Homer play at 12:45 p.m.

Soldotna 7, Houston 4

The Stars moved to 16-9-2 overall by winning their 13th straight game.

Soldotna has been able to win the last three Division II state titles by not having to use the staff’s aces until Friday and Saturday.

Brenden Theel and Jack Harper allowed the Stars to stay on schedule Thursday.

“The guys did their job,” SoHi head coach Ken Gibson said. “That’s the goal — get through here with the pitchers we had designated for this game.”

Theel worked the first four innings and gave up four runs — three earned — on four hits while walking four and striking out five.

Houston is a dangerous team that defeated Kenai in the first round of the Northern Lights Conference tournament.

Hawks head coach Casey Sanford played his college baseball at Wright State. Wright State knocked No. 1 overall seed Vanderbilt from the NCAA tournament Sunday.

“I just told them, Wright State knocked out Vandy, the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament this year for baseball,” Sanford said. “We can do the same thing.

“They bought into it and we played hard.”

The Stars led 5-3 heading to the top of the fifth inning when Sebastian Sanford led off with a walk, and Aidan McDonnell singled to put runners on the corners to chase Theel.

Coach Sanford said this was a nice accomplishment because Theel had topped the Hawks 10-0 in the regular season.

This was a crucial point in SoHi’s title defense because if Harper struggled, the Stars would have to go off schedule for pitching.

Harper allowed Sanford to score on a grounder, but that was it. He went three shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk while striking out three.

“Jack’s been like that all year,” Gibson said. “We can put him in there, and he throws strikes.”

In the bottom of the fifth, Tucker Blough had a two-out, two-RBI single to give more cushion.

“He had a great regions, and so far he’s had a great state,” Gibson said of Blough.

Jayden Stuyvesant was 2 for 3 with two runs and an RBI, while Trenton Ohnemus added two RBIs. Gibson also liked the way Brett Hostetler executed on offense, and the way catcher Ari Miller performed behind the plate.

Houston started with Jayden Garcia. Coach Sanford said Garcia was good before he ran out of gas. Garcia gave up five runs — three earned — on four hits.

Anthony Mazzella went the last 3 2-3 innings, giving up two runs on three hits.

“He did awesome at the end keeping us going and keeping us in it,” coach Sanford said of Mazzella.

Sebastian Sanford scored three runs for Houston, while McDonnell had three hits and Ethan Spencer had two RBIs.

Coach Sanford said a couple players did not make the trip, so a number of players stepped up. He said Kian McDonnell did a good job at second even though he had just one varsity at-bat before Thursday.

Kenai 18, Homer 13

The Kardinals won for the 10th time in 11 tries to move to 15-4 overall. Homer, now 1-4 against Kenai, falls to 12-10 overall.

The difference in the game was the bottom of the first inning, when Kenai scored nine runs off Mariners starter Clyde Clemens and chased him after two outs.

Clemens was not to blame as just one of the runs was earned.

Kenai had lost in the first round of the Northern Lights Conference tournament to Houston before winning four straight to take second place.

“Losing the first game last week was hard,” Kenai head coach Christian Stephanos said. “Any team can just get down after that and not fight, but we fought back four games to take second.

“I think that carried over into today.”

CJ Burns assured Homer would not go away. In relief, Burns gave up nine runs — eight earned — on 11 hits it 5 1-3 innings.

Jacob Joanis went the first three innings for Kenai and did not a allow a run or hit, walking four and striking out three.

The Kardinals removed Joanis before he could hit 55 pitches, meaning he can appear later in the tournament.

Kenai went into the fifth inning leading 12-2 and looking to enact the mercy rule and save pitching.

Homer was having none of it, scoring seven times to cut the gap to 12-9.

“They were seeing the ball well,” Stephanos said of Homer. “We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times.

“They took advantage of it and had some solid hits, but thankfully, our kids did too.”

The Kardinals were up 15-9 after five innings and 18-11 after six innings.

Kenai ended up having to use five pitchers, but none had high pitch counts.

“We’re still in a good spot,” Stephanos said.

For the Kards, Brandon Blake gave up six runs — three earned — on a hit in an inning, Everett Chamberlain gave up three runs — one earned — on two hits in an inning, Braden Smith gave up three runs on three hits in an inning, and Gabe Joanis gave up a run on two hits in an inning.

At the plate for Kenai, Daniel Steffensen was 2 for 5 with two runs and two RBIs, Smith was 3 for 5 with three runs and two RBIs, Jacob Joanis was 3 for 4 with three runs and an RBI, Gabe Joanis was 2 for 2 with two runs and two RBIs, Chamberlain scored two runs, Logan Mese was 2 for 2 with four runs and two RBIs, and Blake was 2 for 4 with two RBIs.

For Homer, Burns was 2 for 4 with two runs and an RBI, Jayden Sims had three runs, Cohen Boyd was 2 for 4 with three runs and three RBIs, and Austin Briscoe had two RBIs.

Monroe Catholic 3, Kodiak 0

Brian Bast, Nathan Priebe and Liam Quirk combined for seven shutout innings for the Rams, allowing only two hits and a walk while striking out 11.

Gavin Peterson pitched six innings for Kodiak and gave up three runs — one earned — on six hits.

North Pole 31, Palmer 12

The Patriots proved to be unstoppable at the plate, collecting 15 hits while walking 15 times.

North Pole led 8-1 after the first inning and 19-10 after three, then scored 12 runs in the top of the fifth.