Service survives in walk-off fashion at DI state baseball tournament

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – With no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Chugiak elected to intentionally walk Service senior Andrew Hickman and load the bases for junior Landon Martindale.

Martindale, 0-for-3 to that point, stepped to the plate and hit the first pitch of the at-bat right back up the middle to score Hunter Christian and lift Service to the ASAA Division I State Baseball Tournament semifinals with the 2-1 win.

Christian tossed four innings, allowing three hits and one run before sophomore Rilen Niclai gave up just one hit and struck out six batters in four scoreless innings of work for the win on the mound.

The Mustangs started the scoring in the top of the first before the Cougars responded in the bottom half of the inning.

Then came a pitching duel.

Preston Rau threw all seven innings for Chugiak, allowing two runs on nine hits while striking out three.

Service now takes on Sitka after the Wolves mauled the West Valley Wolfpack 11-1 after a six-run sixth inning.

Chance Coleman, Bryce Calhoun, Caleb Calhoun and Grady Smith each had two RBIs while Levi Hodges threw all six innings, allowing just one run on six hits while sitting down four batters.

On the other side of the bracket, Colony nearly forced extra innings against three-time defending state champion South Anchorage. The Knights scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning but couldn’t find the equalizer in a 5-4 loss.

Earlier in the seventh, South plated four runs as pitching got away from the Knights.

Four Wolverines recorded a hit, including Trey Maltby who hit an RBI single in the second. On the mound, Blake Peterson tossed 6.1 innings, allowing one earned run on four hits while striking out six, while Maltby closed out the final two batters for the save.

Meanwhile, Eagle River blanked Juneau-Douglas 14-0 in five innings as Tommy Molloy and Riley Lanehart combined for a two-hitter while striking out seven. At the plate, senior duo Jack Mullen and Kamden Kurtz had three hits apiece and combined for five of the team’s nine RBIs.

Service and Sitka square off at 4 p.m. Friday, after which Eagle River and South Anchorage take the field for a 7 p.m. showdown.

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