No surprise here -- East High captured the Cook Inlet Conference championship Friday night by beating South 12-2 at Albrecht Fields.
The surprise, perhaps, is that for the second straight night the T-birds had to rally to keep their impressive winning streak alive.
In winning for the 57th straight time, East had to come back from an early 2-0 deficit. Unlike Thursday, however, when they waited until the final inning to surge past West, the T-birds answered the Wolverines immediately and were never again threatened.
South jumped to the early lead on Danni Desjarlais' two-run homer in the top of the first inning.
East came right back in the bottom of the first, scoring five runs, two of them on a two-run, over-the-fence blast by Vaa Pedro.
Nicollette Dabbs added a two-run homer in the fourth inning for East, which outslugged South 12-4. Sydney Smith pitched all five innings for the victory.
South reached the title game by blasting past West 10-2 in Friday's early game.
East is the team to beat in next week's six-team state tournament at Cartee Field. The T-birds are the top seed from the CIC and will be joined by No. 2 seed South, No. 3 seed West and No. 4 seed Chugiak. The top two teams from the Railbelt Conference will complete the field for the Friday-Saturday tournament.
Anchorage Daily News