Kodiak’s baseball Cinderella run was cut short on Sunday and the Kenai Post 20 Twins run at the American Legion Baseball state tournament featured a come-from-behind victory to extend Post 20 to Monday’s tournament round.
Kenai Post 20 rallied for a pair of runs and a walk-off victory 4-3 over Kodiak in Sunday’s elimination round at Mulcahy Park.
Kenai 4 – Kodiak 3 Sunday Elimination Round
The Kenai Twins remain alive in tournament play with a seventh-inning rally downing Kodiak 4-3 and eliminating Kodiak.
Trailing 3-2 in the seventh inning, Kenai Post 20 lead off in the bottom of the inning with a walk issued to Jeremy Kupferschmid. Kupferschmid advanced to scoring position with a stolen base. David Michael drives in the tying run with a RBI single. With no outs and the score tied, Harrison Metz lays down a sacrifice bunt to advance Michael to second base. Adam Brinster walks to set up double play for Kodiak. Austin Asp drives in Michael for the game winning, walk-off run to advance Kenai past Kodiak 4-3.
Twins 6 – Service 5 Saturday Elimination Game
The Post 20 Twins, down 2-0 after three innings to Service, rallied for six, unanswered runs and then held-off Service for the 6-5 victory in Saturday’s elimination round.
The Twins allowed two runs in the third inning, then posted two runs in the fourth inning scoring Austin Asp and Logan Smith, who opened with back-to-back singles. Post 20 pounded-out four runs in the fifth behind a bases clearing, three RBI double by Jacob Boze. The Service Post 28 added a solo run in the sixth. Final Score: Kenai 6, Service 5
Twins 2 – Dimond 3 Friday Opening Round Game
The #7 seed Kenai Post 20 nearly pulled-off the 2018 American Legion state tournament’s first upset falling 3-2 to the #2 seed Dimond in the tournament’s first round on Friday at Mulcahy Park.
Trailing 3-0 in the seventh inning, Post 20 scored one run and loaded the bases with two outs. David Michael drove in Herold Ochea to draw the Twins to 3-1 Dimond. An Adam Brinster ground ball was misplayed at short stop, plating Harrison Metz and Jeremy Kupferschmid was thrown out at the plate attempting to score from second for the final out of the game. The Twins come up short to Dimond 3-2 and continue play in the elimination round of the double-elimination format tournament.
Other opening round action:
#1 seed Juneau falls to #8 seed Kodiak 3-1; West downs South 4-3; Chugiak beats Service 3-2
Monday’s action in Semi-Final Round:
The Twins play West today at 3:15 at Mulcahy Stadium, with the winner to play for the championship game on Tuesday at 3:15 against the winner of Dimond and Juneau.
Since Dimond is the only undefeated team in the tournament, a loss to Juneau would pit Dimond in what would be a revised 6:15 championship game tomorrow.
