Sunday: Twins split with Wasilla

The American Legion Twins split with Wasilla on Sunday at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai, losing the league game 5-4 before winning the nonleague game 13-2 in five innings.

The Twins are 4-2 in the league and 7-4 overall, good for third place. Wasilla is 2-2 and 4-4 and is tied for ninth place.

In the league game, the first four batters to the plate for the Twins scored before the bats went silent and Wasilla worked its way back into the game.

The Road Warriors had two runs in the fourth and three runs in the seventh to come away with the victory.

Wasilla coach Taylon Ottinger said his squad was missing seven players, including four starters, so battling back to get the victory after a tough start was huge, especially against a quality team like the Twins.

“It can be hard when you get hit right off the bat — four runs in the first inning,” Ottinger said. “That’s one of the biggest problems we’re having is somewhere in the game there’s a four-run inning and it kind of hurts us.

“But I’m very proud with how they just accepted it and bounced back and didn’t let it define them. They’re a team that loves to fight.”

Hunter Williams, Braden Smith and Andrew Pieh walked to lead off the game. Williams scored on a single by Charlie Chamberlain, Smith scored on an error, Pieh scored on a fielder’s choice by Jace Crall and Chamberlain scored on a single by Jayden Stuyvesant.

Wasilla starter Lalo Palomares then settled down, working 3 1-3 innings and allowing those four runs, letting the Road Warriors get back in the game.

Twins coach Robb Quelland said his team is not young, but it is inexperienced, and the Twins should have known the early lead would not be enough.

“Wasilla’s a good team,” he said. “There’s some veterans on that side of the line. We knew it would not be an easy game no matter if we were up eight.”

In the fourth, Wasilla cut it to 4-2 with a pair of unearned runs against Twins starter Trenton Ohnemus. Pedro Camacho scored on a passed ball and Chase Sivulich scored on a ground ball by Will Plowman. Ohnemus gave up just those two runs in four innings.

The Twins also were having trouble hitting the offspeed pitches of Ramon Guzman, who worked three scoreless innings for the win.

Wasilla kept coming. In the sixth, the Warriors loaded the bases against Colby Sturman, who worked 1 2-3 scoreless innings, but Braden Smith came on to record a strikeout to get out of the jam.

In the seventh, Wasilla loaded the bases with no outs when Smith hit Mathew Vandenberg and Camacho, and walked Jaren Venie. Sivulich had a sacrifice fly to score Vandenburg, then Palomares had a sac fly to score Camacho and Venie also scored the winning run on the play on a throwing error.

The three-run rally happened without a hit.

“It’s something we talk about all the time, you can’t defend a walk,” Quelland said, noting a very high percentage of walks with less than two outs score at the Legion AA level.

The Twins tried to rally in the seventh. Smith reached on an error, then Andrew Pieh singled for a bunt.

Camacho, the catcher, put the exclamation point on a great defensive game by picking off Smith at second to calm the rally.

“I’ve coached him ever since he was a freshman and the amount of growth that kid has had in the last four years — it’s been insane to watch,” Ottinger said.

When Chamberlain, who was 2 for 4, had an infield single to put runners on first and second, Ottinger called on Venie.

He got a fielder’s choice ground ball from Atticus Gibson, who was 2 for 4, for two outs and runners on first and third.

That set up a dramatic at-bat for Crall, who used to play for Wasilla. Ottinger said Crall and Plowman are really good friends and were joking with each other all game.

Crall worked a 3-2 count before flying to right to end the game.

“Jaren always has a level head,” Ottinger said. “I told him right when he got into the game, ‘I trust you in this position.’

“He said, ‘I got you, coach.’”

In the nonleague game, Wasilla scored twice in the first, but the Twins dominated from there.

Derrick Jones pitched four innings and gave up two runs on a hit, while Levi Mickelson pitched a scoreless and hitless final inning.

At the plate for the Twins, Chamberlain was 3 for 3 with five RBIs, Gibson was 2 for 3 with four RBIs, Williams had two runs, Smith had two runs, Pieh had two runs, Simon Grenier had two runs and Ari Miller had two runs.