The visiting Kenai Central baseball team held off Homer 4-3 on Tuesday in Northern Lights Conference action.
It was the first game of the season for the Kards, while the Mariners fell to 0-3 in the league and 0-3 overall.
Miles Jones got the win for Kenai, going all seven innings and giving up seven hits. He walked two and struck out six.
“He pitched very well,” Kenai coach John Kennedy said. “He was in control.”
Kennedy said Jones mostly threw just fastballs, and was able to keep his pitch count low. The defense also helped him out, committing just one error. Homer also had just one error.
“The Kenai kid threw well,” Homer coach Mark Putney said. “He was the difference for them.”
The game was tied at 1 after one inning and 2 after five innings. Kenai went up 3-2 after the sixth inning, then took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh.
The Mariners cut the gap to 4-3, then had a runner on third with two outs after Greg Smith tripled, but Jones ended the game with a strikeout.
Brandon Beachy started for Homer and went four innings, giving up a run. J.J. Sonnen gave up a run in two innings of work, while Nahoa Jette yielded a run in the seventh.
Dallas Pierren was 2 for 3 with a run, while Jones helped his cause by going 1 for 2 with two RBIs. Also for Kenai, Dave Boyle had an RBI, and Paul Steffensen was 1 for 3 with an RBI.
For Homer, Sonnen had two hits, and Michael Swoboda also had a key hit.
“We had four baserunning errors that hurt us,” Putney said. “We ran into four outs.”
Kenai hosts Soldotna today at 5 p.m. at the Kenai Little League Fields. This game had originally been scheduled for Thursday.
Homer hosts Colony in varsity games at 7 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday.
