The Post 20 Twins clinched a spot in the semifinals of the 71st Alaska Legion Baseball State Tournament with a 7-0 victory over South on Saturday at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.
At the tournament, the teams are divided into two pools of four, with the top two in each pool advancing to Monday’s semifinals.
The pool play format didn’t provide a lot of suspense as to who makes the semifinals this year, as the qualifiers were decided after all teams had played just two games.
In the Denali Pool, the No. 3 seed Twins topped No. 6 Palmer 2-1 on Thursday and then beat No. 8 South on Saturday. With No. 1 Eagle River defeating South on Thursday and Palmer on Saturday, both the Twins and Eagle River qualify for the semis.
Post 20 (21-10-1), seeking to add to state titles won in 1991, 1995, 2012 and 2016, made the semifinals last year, but came up short of the championship game.
The Twins play Eagle River on Sunday at 3 p.m. to determine which team gets the top seed out of the pool.
In the Alyeska Pool, No. 2 Service and No. 5 Dimond both won their first two games to qualify for the semis. Saturday, Service defeated Dimond 9-7 to lock down the top seed out of the group.
Coming into Saturday’s game, Post 20 had not defeated South at state since 2008, a five-game losing streak.
Colby Sturman made sure that streak came to an end, pitching a complete-game shutout for the Twins. Post 20 had a 5-0 lead after the third inning and tacked on tallies in the fourth and sixth innings to cruise home.
“We had all the faith in the world in him,” Twins coach Robb Quelland said. “He came out and did his job. We never questioned his skill and ability.
“It was good to see him go the distance.”
Sturman gave up just two hits while walking four and striking out 10 in what Quelland said was Sturman’s best outing of the summer.
Sturman stands as a testament to the depth in the Twins program right now. He has spent time this season with the A program.
“We haven’t been able to utilize his skills all the time,” Quelland said. “We haven’t had to rely on him, and we haven’t had to rely on anybody.
“We have a pretty good mix of arms. I’ve told them all year that it’s about the last week of July and it’s paid off. Everybody is ready to go.”
The Twins have used only three pitchers thus far in the tournament.
Quelland also said his squad was solid on defense behind Sturman. The only error came when a throw from catcher Jayden Stuyvesant got away from Andrew Pieh and allowed the runner to move to third.
South made three errors. Starter Blake Peterson gave up six runs on four hits while walking six in four innings. Reliever Grayson Stanek-Alward gave up a run on two hits in two innings.
“Our hitting came back a little bit, but everybody that’s pitching right now is good,” Quelland said.
Charlie Chamberlain led the Twins on offense with a triple, a run and two RBIs.
Now that the Twins are in the semifinals, Quelland said that makes the pitching decisions for Sunday tough. Will the Twins try to preserve some pitching for Monday’s semifinal and possibly Tuesday’s championship, or totally go after the top seed?
“That’s the million dollar question,” Quelland said.
The coach said the Twins have plenty of arms on a deep team that will finish at least among the top four in the state for the second straight year.
“We’re down here cheering on the A team right now and they have one loss all year long,” Quelland said. “Our development has paid off the last few years. It’s a little different than three or four years ago when we were not doing so well.”
