The Soldotna baseball team will face North Pole at 3 p.m. Saturday at Wasilla High School for the Division II state title.
The Stars (19-3 overall), seeking their third-straight crown, defeated Palmer 10-5 in the semifinals Friday. The Patriots topped Kenai Central (12-5) 4-2 in the other semifinal.
Soldotna defeated North Pole in the semifinals at state in 2022 and 2023. In 2021, the Patriots topped the Stars in the third-place game.
The Kardinals, who came up just short of a second-straight championship game, will face the Moose at 12:30 p.m. for third place.
North Pole 4, Kenai Central 2
After losing in three straight semifinals since the Division II state tournament began in 2021, the Patriots broke through to make the first state final in the program’s history.
Kenai senior Gabe Smith and North Pole senior Simeon Langer dueled in the game.
“He pitched a phenomenal game,” Kenai head coach Luke Oliver said of Smith.
Smith went all six innings and gave up four runs — three earned — on five hits while walking one and striking out four.
Langer prevailed by going seven innings, giving up two earned runs on eight hits while walking two and striking out nine.
“Yesterday, everything was clicking at the plate,” Oliver said. “I think we only left two on base. Today, it seems like we left everybody on base.”
The Kardinals grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but the Patriots came back to tie it in the bottom of the second, then grabbed a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth.
Kenai tied it at 2 in the top of the fifth, but North Pole rallied for the game-winning two runs in the bottom of the sixth.
The Kardinals were charged with three errors in the game, had a runner picked off, and also had a couple line drives caught in key situations.
“It was a good game,” Oliver said. “We had a couple mental lapses early — physical errors if you will.
“It is what it is. Everybody has to play through that stuff.”
After finishing second at state last season, the Kardinals still have a chance to finish third this season.
“We talked about that after the game,” Oliver said. “We have a chance to try and take third, or fold and take fifth.
“We’ve got to respond, give the seniors a win in their last game, and move on from there.”
Braden Smith was 2 for 3 with a run and an RBI for Kenai, while Gabe Smith was 2 for 3 with an RBI. Avery Martin scored the other run for Kenai.
Soldotna 10, Palmer 5
The Moose battled, but in the end Soldotna’s depth prevailed. And the Stars were able to keep ace Trenton Ohnemus fully fresh for the championship game.
“We have lots of depth,” said Soldotna coach Ken Gibson, who will seek a third state title in his three years as coach. “We were hitting through the lineup and getting on base through the lineup.
“There’s not a lot of holes. We kept the pressure up every inning.”
On offense, Derrick Jones was 2 for 4 with a run and an RBI, Andrew Pieh was 2 for 3 with a run and an RBI, Wyatt Gagnon scored two runs, Jayden Stuyvesant scored two runs, and Levi Mickelson had two runs and two RBIs.
Tucker Blough also had four RBIs for the Stars, including a three-RBI double in the sixth that provided valuable insurance.
The Stars jumped to a 4-0 lead in the first inning, but Palmer had the gap cut to 5-4 by the end of the fourth.
Colby Sturman started for the Stars, going 3 1-3 innings and giving up four runs on two hits while walking three and striking out eight.
“He controlled things really well,” Gibson said. “They really didn’t score runs on him. If there hadn’t been an error in the outfield, he’d have held up really well.”
Pieh pitched for the second straight game and went 2 2-3 innings, giving up a run on three hits while walking one and striking out two.
“He was great pitching for a second day in a row,” Gibson said of Pieh.
Derrick Jones pitched a scoreless inning for the Stars. Gibson said, in addition to his offense at the plate, Jones made a couple nice plays at shortstop and was deserving of player of the game.
Gibson said seniors Jones, Mickelson and Pieh all did a good job of leading the way to the final.
With Ohnemus on the mound, who pitched a complete game to win state last season and has been dominant against Division II competition this season, Gibson said the team is confident heading to Saturday.
“It’s more a matter of staying focused and staying after it,” he said. “Even when a bad thing happens, a few bad plays, they’re really resilient.”
