Patriots 4, Kardinals 2
In a tightly contested game featuring timely hitting, close plays, and superb pitching, the Kenai Kardinals fell to the Noth Pole Patriots on Friday. With the loss, the Kardinals fail to reach their second straight Divison II title game. North Pole advances to the championship for the first time in school history.
Kenai took an early lead, scoring one run in the top of the first inning when Braden Smith tripled with two outs, then came into score on a Gabe Smith single. North Pole answered back in the bottom of the second, tying the game with an unearned run. The teams traded runs in the fourth and fifth innings, and then the Patriots plated two in the bottom of the sixth to take a 4-2 lead. The Kardinals were retired in order in the seventh to end the game.
Gabe Smith threw six innings and took the loss. He gave up six hits and four runs (three earned).
North Pole senior Simeon Langer earned the win, striking out nine Kardinals while only giving up two runs on four hits.
Aside from the Smiths, Kenai managed very little solid contact against the Patriots left hander. Braden was 2-3 with a run scored and an RBI, Gabe was 2-3 with an RBI.
The Kardinals will play the Palmer Moose in the 3rd/4th place game on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
Player of the Game: Braden Smith.
Soldotna 10, Palmer 5
The Soldotna Stars are headed to their third straight DII State Championship game after defeating the Palmer Moose on Friday night. The Stars will face a familiar foe, the North Pole Patriots, who they will see in the DII state tournament for the fourth straight year.
The Stars jumped out to an early 4-0 lead over Palmer thanks to a big first inning, punctuated by a 2-out, 2-run double by senior Levi Mickelson. Palmer made the game interesting with a run in the third and three runs in the fourth. The Stars took a narrow 5-4 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning.
With a trip to the title game on the line, the Stars showed up in a big way. Matthew Schilling legged out an infield single to lead off the inning, then came into score on a booming double by Derrick Jones. Andrew Pieh took the torch and drove in Jones with an RBI single. A couple of walks later, with the bases loaded, Tucker Blough put the cherry on top, clearing the infield with a three-run double to the gap in right-center. That put the Stars up 10-4.
However, Palmer refused to give up and loaded the bases with 1-out in the top of the seventh, but relief pitcher Jones struck out back-to-back Moose to end the game.
Jones was 2-4 with a run scored and an RBI; Andrew was 2-3 with a run scored and an RBI as well. Levi Mickelson finished the game 1-2 with two runs scored and two RBIs, and Tucker Blough was 1-4 with three RBIs.
North Pole ousted the Stars in the quarterfinals of the 2021 tournament, but Soldotna returned the favor with wins over the Patriots in the semifinals in 2022 and 2023.
Soldotna and North Pole square off in the championship on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
Player of the Game: Derrick Jones.
All Kenai and Soldotna games will air on ESPN 1140 AM, 96.9 FM, and radiokenai.com. Pregame coverage begins 15 minutes before the first pitch.
