The Soldotna Stars baseball squad fell 7-5 to Palmer on Thursday at the Buddy Dale Invitational in Wasilla.
Palmer’s Landon Guggenmos spun a gem, whiffing 12 in six innings for the Moose, allowing four runs (one earned) on six hits and two walks. Owen Hayes earned the save with an inning of relief, giving up one unearned run on a hit.
Tanner Ussing got the start for SoHi and went 2 2-3 innings, scattering five hits for four runs (three earned) with three walks and one strikeout. Davey Belger went three frames in relief and gave up three runs on three hits and three walks while whiffing two, and Atticus Gibson finished the sixth inning with no trouble.
Soldotna received a power boost from David Michael, who hit 3 for 4 with an RBI and two runs. Trapper Thompson batted in two runs. Palmer’s biggest threat was Hayes, who hit 3 for 4 and scored three runs.
Palmer struck first, starting with a two-out single by Hayes in the first inning. Hayes scored from second on a SoHi error to make it 1-0 Palmer.
The Moose notched three runs in the third on an Anthony Jones single and a two-run single by Kaj Taylor to make it 4-0.
SoHi got two runs back in the fourth inning, starting with a single by Jacob Boze and a double by Tanner Ussing that put two runners in scoring position with no outs. Trapper Thompson reached on error to score a run, then Ussing scored on a bad throw by the pitcher to cut the gap to 4-2.
Palmer got both runs back in the bottom of the fourth, but the Stars continued pressing in the fifth. Michael ripped an RBI double to the field and Thompson had an RBI single to slice the lead to 6-4, but that would be as close as the Stars would get.
The Stars will face the Dimond Lynx on day three of the tournament Friday.
Editor’s note: This story corrects the name of the Palmer pitcher from an earlier version.
