The American Legion Post 20 Twins lost 1-0 to Post 4 South on Saturday on the first day of the 72nd Alaska Legion Baseball State Tournament at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.
The first three games of the tournament are pool play. The Twins, the No. 3 seed, are in the Alyeska pool with No. 6 South, No. 2 Eagle River and No. 7 Post 15 Palmer.
Eagle River, the three-time defending tourney champions, needed just five innings to defeat Palmer 14-0 on Saturday.
That makes Sunday important for the Twins, who have advanced out of pool play in the last two state tournaments only to lose in the semifinals.
Post 20 takes on Eagle River at 4 p.m., while Palmer and South play at 1 p.m. If both South and Eagle River win, those two squads already will have secured spots in the semifinals.
Twins head coach Robb Quelland said losing on the first day makes advancing to the semis tough.
“This is a great group of young men, and they’re not angry. They’re not upset,” Quelland said. “I think they’re just kind of frustrated with themselves.
“So we start over in the morning, and hopefully we get a good game with Eagle River tomorrow.”
The main reason for the frustration of the Twins (18-10) is South starter David Feigner.
On July 12, Feigner and Twins starter Trenton Ohnemus dueled, with Ohnemus pitching eight scoreless innings and Feigner pitching seven scoreless frames. The Twins got to the South bullpen in the eighth inning for a 3-0 victory.
Saturday, Feigner went all seven innings, allowing just two hits while walking one and striking out eight.
“He just threw a lot of strikes,” Quelland said of Feigner, who threw 65 of 94 pitches for strikes. “His offspeed stuff was good. It just kind of had them fooled all day.”
The Twins were 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position, striking out three times in those opportunities.
Ohnemus went four shutout innings, giving up two hits and a walk while striking out 10.
Malakai Olson worked a scoreless fifth and sixth inning before a little spurt of wildness hurt the Twins in the top of the seventh.
Grayson Stanek-Alward started the winning rally with a walk, then Mason Theriault reached on a fielder’s choice.
After a fly ball for the second out, Andrew Pieh relieved Olson. Pieh hit Jack Zuspan with a pitch, then Jim Massey bounced a single between third and short for the game-winning RBI.
Quelland said Pieh did his job getting a ground ball from Massey, but the head coach also said that shows why the strikeouts the Twins had with runners in scoring position were costly.
“Put the ball in play, and good things happen,” Quelland said. “And that’s what happened. He snuck it through the infield, and they were going on contact.”
Eagle River has had Post 20’s number this year, with a 4-0 record so far.
Even with using Ohnemus, Olson and Pieh, Quelland said the pitching is still in order.
“We’re in good shape,” he said. “We have pitching for tomorrow. We have pitching for Monday also.”
Matthew Schilling and Jacob Joanis had the hits for the Twins.
