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Just as the state high school sports calendar nears its end, West High has finally emerged to start making history -- the Eagles are in the state high school baseball and softball championships for the first time.
The Alaska School Activities Association's state baseball tournament begins today in Palmer, and the large- and small-school softball tournaments begin Friday in Anchorage. All championship games are Saturday. Hermon Brothers Field will be the site of all the baseball games, and Cartee Fields all the softball games. In baseball, Dimond can become the first team from the Cook Inlet Conference to successfully defend its title. Dimond (9-1) and West (8-3) open the eight-team, single-elimination tournament against the top two Mid Alaska Conference teams, Lathrop and West Valley. Juneau-Douglas and Sitka are the first and second seeds from the Southeastern Conference, and Colony and Kodiak are first and second seeds representing the Southcentral Conference. Softball uses a double-elimination format and divides into large-school and small-school tournaments. The top four teams from the CIC and Railbelt Conference make up the eight teams in the large-school tournament. Chugiak, East, West and South represent the CIC. Lathrop, Colony, West Valley and Juneau-Douglas play from the Railbelt. Chugiak (16-4) comes in as the CIC champion after beating defending-state- champion East (13-6) in the title game last week. The Thunderbirds handed Chugiak its only CIC tournament loss, forcing the Mustangs to come back and beat East in a double-header to take the championship. In the 2009 state tournament, roles were reversed. East lost to Chugiak early in the tournament and came back to win the championship double-header against the Mustangs. The earliest the Mustangs can meet the Thunderbirds in this week's tournament is at the start of the third round Saturday. Ketchikan (11-7) of the Southeastern Conference defends the small-school softball championship, starting with a game against winless Delta Junction (0-11). Homer (13-8) and Monroe (8-6) are the top seeds and get first-round byes.