The defending champion Juneau Midnight Suns eked out a first-round victory Friday at the American Legion state baseball tournament at Mulcahy Stadium.
Juneau, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, slipped past seventh-seeded West 2-1. The Midnight Suns scored both of their runs in the third inning, when they benefited from two errors by West.
The Eagles put the tying run on second base with two outs in the final inning, but a groundout ended their hopes of tying the game.
Wasilla, South and Chugiak will join Juneau in Saturday’s semifinals. Wasilla posted a 7-5 come-from-behind win over upset-minded Dimond, South turned back Kenai 8-5 and Chugiak shut out Palmer 10-0 in Friday’s other games.
The championship game of the double-elimination tournament is scheduled for Tuesday.
Wasilla, the tournament’s top seed, trailed Dimond 4-0 after the first inning. It capped its comeback by scoring twice in the sixth inning to break a 5-5 tie.
Jacob Gilbert was the star for the Road Warriors (27-6). He came out of the bullpen in the midst of Dimond’s big first inning and went six innings, striking out five and allowing one unearned run. In the sixth inning, he hit a leadoff single and went on to score on an error to give Wasilla a 6-5 lead. Wasilla added another run one out later when Jacob Hansen, who had walked, scored an another Dimond error.
Dimond (15-15) jumped to an early lead behind RBIs from Zach Jenkins, Luke Smith and Eric Galosich. Jenkins finished with three hits and Galosich with two.
In Juneau’s close win over West, the Midnight Suns (24-4) took a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Gabe Storie, who singled and stole second, scored on an error, and Donavin McCurley, who walked, scored on a Christian Ludeman single.
West (17-11) made it a one-run game in the top of the sixth. Sam Lebo got things going with a one-out single, moved to second based on a sacrifice bunt, and scored on Quinn Bates-Janigo’s RBI double.
Brock McCormick struck out five in 4 1/3 innings to get the win for Juneau.
In South’s victory over Kenai, the Wolverines (18-10) got two RBIs and 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief pitching from Reid Brock. Ricky Gatter added two hits, two runs and a steal, Gunnar Nix drove in three runs and Josh Costello scored three times for South.
For Kenai (20-12), Harrison Metz was 3 for 4 with three RBIs and one run and Logan Smith was 2 for 3 with two RBIs.
In Chugiak’s blanking of Palmer, Sam Hall allowed two hits over five innings and Ian Frizelle hit a two-run double that capped a six-run fifth inning for the third-seeded Mustangs (24-5).
Christian Cambridge drove in three runs and Justin Nevells scored three times to help upend Palmer (17-12). which is in the state tournament for the first time since 1993.
Friday’s first round
Juneau 2, West
Chugiak 10, Palmer 0
South 8, Kenai 5
Wasilla 7, Dimond 5
Saturday’s games at Mulcahy Stadium
10 a.m. — West vs. Palmer (loser out)
12:30 p.m. — Kenai vs. Dimond r (loser out)
3:15 p.m. — Chugiak vs. Juneau
6:15 p.m. — South vs. Wasilla