Kenai survives late rally by Service to claim Legion baseball championship

A solid start and clutch pitching down the stretch lifted Kenai to the American Legion state baseball championship a year after the Twins finished in second place.

Second-seeded Kenai defeated sixth-seeded Service 8-7 Saturday at Mulcahy Stadium to take its first Legion crown since 2012 and its fourth overall.

Twins pitcher Gavin Petterson took the mound in relief to get Kenai out of a jam in the eighth inning and struck out the final three batters in the ninth to seal the win.

"It feels unbelievable," Petterson said. "At the beginning of the season, I never thought I'd even be playing on varsity, so it's something serious when we make it this far, work this hard and pull it out."

Service, playing its second game of the day, rallied to score four runs off Calvin Hills in the eighth inning and tied the game 7-7 with two outs and two runners on base.

That's when the Twins brought in Petterson, who saved Kenai from further damage by getting Service's Carson Sandau to hit into a groundout to end the disastrous inning.

In the bottom of the eighth, Hills got a chance at redemption. He got on base with a line drive up the middle before advancing two bases on a wild pitch.

He scored the go-ahead run in the next at-bat — an RBI fielder's choice by Justice Miller.

"It's a really big stress relief, especially after that eighth inning that I pitched," Hills said. "It just feels great."

Kenai controlled the game early thanks to solid pitching by starter Joey Becher, who finished with seven strikeouts and allowed three earned runs on seven hits in seven innings.

The Twins built a 5-0 lead through five innings. They led 5-1 after six and 7-3 after seven.

That's when things got interesting.

Hills walked two batters and hit two consecutive batters in Service's four-run eighth inning, including a shot to the head on Service catcher Cooper Bailey Parsons.

First baseman Derek Scoggins hit a dribbler to Hills and beat the throw to first base for the game-tying, RBI single, which drew loud cheers from the Service fans.

But the Cougars couldn't get anything more done once Petterson came into the game.

Kenai heads to the Northwest Regional tournament next week in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Service will play in the Northwest Class A regional tournament in Laurel, Montana.

Saturday night's loss ended a surprising run through the eight-team tournament by the Cougars, who upset four higher seeds on their way to the championship game.

Their biggest upset came earlier Saturday when they eliminated top-seeded Juneau 8-6.

"I'm just super proud of my team," Bailey Parsons said after the Juneau win. "Throughout the season, we had trouble keeping the energy up and that's why we were so low (in seeding), but now that we're keeping the energy up, we're playing really good baseball.

"I can't be more proud than I am right now to be a part of this group."

A pivotal moment in Service's win over Juneau came in the bottom of the eighth inning when Juneau , trailing 7-6, loaded the bases with two outs.

Michael Cesar attempted to steal home for Juneau only to be thwarted at the plate by Bailey Parsons, whose diving tag ended the inning and preserved Service's one-run lead.

"(Pitcher Raleigh) Pigg was supposed to throw a curveball and he changed it up on me in the middle of the pitch and threw a fastball," Bailey Parsons said. "All I knew is I had to catch the ball and dive for it and lay down and tag him, and we got him."

The Cougars scored one more run in the ninth and held on for the victory.

Early in the game, Service built a four-run lead with two runs in each of the first and second innings.

Juneau got two runs back in the third and tied the game with two runs in the seventh when Bryce Swofford smacked a double into deep right field to drive in Zebadiah Storie and Cesar.

The game wasn't tied for long. In the top of the eighth, Service had the bases loaded with two outs and Ronan Klancher at the plate.

Klancher walloped a line drive over the Juneau shortstop that brought home Scoggins, giving Service the lead for good.