The Soldotna Stars and Kenai Kardinals notched first-round victories at the 2023 ASAA Division II State Baseball Championships on Thursday advancing both teams into the winner’s-bracket semi-final on Friday at Wasilla High School.
Soldotna 12, Palmer 9
The Soldotna Stars earned a wire-to-wire 12-9 victory over the Palmer Moose on a cold, dreary Thursday night at Wasilla High School. With the win, Soldotna eyes a second consecutive Alaska School Activities Association D2 Baseball State Semi-Final match-up against the North Pole Patriots Friday night at 6 pm. Last season, SoHi defeated North Pole 9-8 en route to an eventual state title in the 2022 D2 state tournament.
The Stars spent 40 minutes at the plate in a six-run top of the 1st inning against Palmer starter Reed Craner. An inning that was punctuated by six walks to one hit, the Stars built an insurmountable lead that the Moose couldn’t overcome.
Palmer answered SoHi’s lineup with three runs in the bottom of the 1st against Stars right-hander Trenton Ohnemus to bring the score to 6-3 after one frame.
Soldotna followed its first inning outburst with a four-run second frame that was highlighted by an Easton Hawkins bases clearing triple which at the time, increased the Stars lead to 10-3. Palmer answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning.
Following a two-run third inning for Soldotna, Palmer proceeded to outscore SoHi 4-0 over the final four innings against Stars relievers
In a high-octane bottom of the seventh inning with two on and two out and the game-tying run at the plate, Soldotna right-hander Andrew Pieh struck out Palmer’s Gabriel Wheeler swinging to end the game, preserving a 12-9 SoHi win.
Listen into Soldotna’s pursuit of a second consecutive ASAA D2 Baseball state championship Friday night at 6 pm against North Pole on ESPN 1140 AM, 96.9 FM and radiokenai.com.
Kenai 9 – Monroe Catholic 6
Monroe Catholic scored first in the 1st inning, Kenai return in the second inning with two runs and Monroe answered back with two runs.
Kenai scored four runs in the the third inning making the score six to four.
The game remained scoreless through the six inning when Monroe scored two runs to tie the game at six.
Kenai came back in the eighth inning with three runs.
Kenai defeated Monroe Catholic in extra innings by a score of 9-6.
Kenai advances to play Kodiak in the winner’s bracket, semi-final at 3:30 p.m. on Friday at Wasilla High School.
Other First Round Scores:
North Pole 13 – Houston 3
Kodiak 5 – Petersburg 1