Anchorage Daily News

It was the kind of injury that makes you cringe. Luckily for Colony's Colter Peterson, his dislocated left pinkie just looked bad.

Peterson had just hit his second double of the game Saturday against Palmer. While sliding back to second base on a Palmer pick-off attempt, he caught his hand on the corner of the base, bending his pinkie to the side.

Peterson immediately jumped up and ran back to the dugout while looking down at his hand. Colony coach Jamie Mayo directed him to leave and go to the hospital.

As Peterson met his dad, Reid, he walked by the fans watching at Wasilla Senior Field. Fans gawked: his pinkie was splayed outward at a nearly 90-degree angle.

But that didn't stop him from coming back into the game, a 13-3 Colony win. Rather than worrying about any pain, Peterson was mad he had to leave. As his dad was driving him to the hospital, he snapped the pinkie back in place and told dad to turn the car around.

"We hadn't even made it to the highway yet," Peterson said.

Peterson came back to pitch two innings of relief, and his offense -- two doubles, two runs, two RBIs -- helped Colony win its season opener.

Colony pounded out 10 hits -- four of them doubles -- and took advantage of six Palmer errors for an easy victory.

Chris Breck pitched five solid innings, allowing just two runs on three hits while striking out eight. He didn't allow a walk.

Breck's command of the strike zone --he got better as the game went on, striking out five of the last six batters he faced -- kept Palmer hitters off balance all game.

Colony coach Mayo said Breck throws a decent fastball, slider and change-up, but is not dominant with any of those pitches.

"But he throws strikes. He moves the ball around and he keeps people off balance," Mayo said. "He was a little irritated that we pulled him in the fifth inning, but he had 77 pitches and his pitch count was 75. We've pulled kids in a game that have been throwing a no-hitter before because of a pitch count. It's the first game of the season. We're not going to blow anybody's arm out."

First game or not, Colony looked solid. The Knights had one error, and four players finished with two hits.

Breck went 2 for 3 with a run and two RBIs; Kody Ziter finished 2 for 2 with a double and two runs; Rhowe Stinnett went 2 for 4 with two runs and two RBIs.

"I was real pleased with what we did today," Mayo said. "It's hard not to be."

Colony took a 4-1 lead in the second on Breck's two-run single and Stinnett's one-run single.

Palmer cut it to 4-2 on Tim Rockey's run-scoring single, but that was as close as the Moose would get.

The Knights twice scored on bases-loaded walks in the third, added another run in the third on a Palmer error, then tacked on two more in the fifth when Peterson blasted a two-run double. That put Colony up 9-2.

Colony second baseman Blake Huppert saved at least two runs in the sixth with a huge defensive play. Running to his right, he made a snow-cone stab on Rockey's line drive with the bases loaded.

"If he doesn't catch that ball, it's a different ball game," Palmer coach David Combs said. "That was a game changer."

Palmer starter Cole Smith struggled through five innings, giving up nine runs on eight hits with four strikeouts. He walked seven batters and was hampered by Palmer's infield errors.

"You can't defend walks," Combs said. "But we gave them extra outs and they blew it up."

Still, Combs said he was pleased with how the team played overall.

"We did good. That's a (heck) of a team there, no doubt about it," Combs said. "I think (Colony) is one of the better teams in the state."

Colony is 1-0, and Palmer fell to 1-1.

Find Ron Wilmot online at adn.com/contact/rwilmot or call 352-6712.

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