Sports

Dimond in, Chugiak out as BP Invitational heads to semifinals

Dimond clinched a spot in the BP Invitational semifinals but Chugiak missed out due to tiebreakers, leaving Anchorage with just one of four semifinal spots in the annual American Legion baseball tournament at Mulcahy Stadium.

Dimond claimed a 12-7 win over Service to emerge as the tournament's only undefeated team when three days of pool play wrapped up Saturday. The Lynx won all three of their games to grab a spot in Sunday's 2:15 p.m. semifinal.

Chugiak was one of four teams that finished with 2-1 records, along with the Napoleon River Bandits of Ohio, the Castroville Cannons of Texas and Team Avenue of Los Angeles.

Chugiak, Napoleon and Castroville all played in the tougher Pool B, so tiebreakers were needed to determine which two teams advanced to the semifinals. Castroville emerged as the top seed and Napoleon finished as the No. 2 seed, leaving Chugiak out of the semifinals.

The other team in that pool, Eagle River, finished pool play with a 0-3 record.

Dimond and Team Avenue dominated in Pool A, where South finished 1-2 and Service was 0-3.

Team Avenue will play in the 11:45 a.m. semifinal against Castroville. Dimond will face Napoleon

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The championship game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

In Saturday's games:

-- Joe Fitka homered and was one of three players with multiple RBIs for Dimond in the 12-7 win over Service. Fitka drove in four runs, Noah Alexander was 3 for 3 with three runs and three RBIs and Jake Andresen was 3 for 4 with two RBIs for the Lynx. Service got a boost from Nick Hall's two RBIs.

-- Chugiak stranded a Castroville runner on third base in the final inning to grab an 8-7 squeaker. Jakub Kindred and Matthew Hess each drove in two runs for the Mustangs, who got a seven-inning complete game from Zachary Brueggemann. Brueggemann was touched for 11 hits but helped his cause by going 2 for 4 with two RBIs and two runs.

-- Michael Hendricks threw a five-inning no-hitter to lead Napoleon past Eagle River 11-1. Cody Caudill drove in three runs and Nate Rau knocked in two for the Ohio team, which won the 2013 BP Invitational.

-- A five-run fifth inning and Jose Castevita's seven strikeouts carried Team Avenue to a 7-3 win over South. Leadoff hitter Lian Lincoln led South with three hits and an RBI.

-- Ethan Valdez clubbed a home run and scored three times to help Castroville overwhelm Napoleon 10-3.

BP Invitatonal

Mulcahy Stadium

Saturday's games

Castroville 10, Napoleon 3

Napoleon 11, Eagle River 1

Dimond 12, Service 7

Chugiak 8, Castroville 7

Team Avenue 7, South 3

Sunday's games

9:15 a.m. – Service vs. Eagle River

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11:45 a.m. – Team Avenue vs. Castroville (semifinal)

2:15 – Dimond vs. Napoleon (semifinal)

5 p.m. – Chugiak vs. South

7:30 p.m. – Championship game

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