After two walk-off losses, the Gastineau Channel Little League all-stars find themselves on the brink of elimination in the Alaska District 2 Junior Softball Tournament.
The team trails 2-1 in a best-of-five series against Ketchikan Little League, the only other team in the tournament and this year’s host. Juneau must now win both Game 4 and Game 5 on Thursday to clinch a state tournament berth. Juneau manager Barb Strong believes her team can do it, too.
“My girls are fundamentally strong and if they limit errors, and stay focused I have no doubt that we could win the series,” Strong said via text.
In Game 1 on Monday, Juneau gave up two runs in the seventh inning in a 7-6 loss. Gloria Bixby led Juneau with three hits in a five-inning 14-4 win the following day, evening the series, if only for a few hours.
Both sides regrouped and played a second time on Tuesday, with Juneau unable to maintain a one-run advantage in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs, Ketchikan’s Shaelyn Mendoza and Nyah Edenshaw stole home to earn the walk-off victory.
“Those are hard,” Strong said of the walk-offs. “The girls’ emotions are running high, but we’re keeping things as positive as possible.”
It was an 8-1 game in Ketchikan’s favor after three innings, but Juneau rallied for three runs in the fourth, two in the fifth and four in the sixth. Strong credited a fourth-inning triple by Zoey Billings for sparking the turnaround.
Juneau tied the game at 10-10 in the top of the sixth before Hailey Gilson’s two-RBI single put her team back on top. In the seventh and final inning, Juneau again scored two runs to tie the game. But this time, they didn’t stop there. After scores by Peyton Carson and Anna Dale tied the game, Riley Harp’s sacrifice fly to right field scored Mariah Schauwecker to go up 13-12.
Schauwecker pitched six innings in the loss and struck out three. Hannah Moody pitched 5 1/3 innings for Ketchikan, striking out three and walking nine.
Bixby, Carson and Anne-Alese Rentrop led Juneau with two RBIs each.
Ketchikan coach Arnold Mendoza was unable to be reached for comment.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.
