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Photo by John Wagner

The Lathrop Malemutes and West Valley Wolfpack used strong pitching performances to split a Mid Alaska Conference doubleheader Saturday afternoon at Arco Field.

Jefferey Brooks pitched a complete-game victory as West Valley won the opener 8-6. Jake Karl used his dancing knuckleball in the second game to befuddle the Wolfpack and lead Lathrop to a 6-2 win in the nightcap.

In the opener, Brooks was in command early as West Valley opened up an 8-1 lead.

“He had good control early, with a lot of first-pitch strikes,” West Valley coach Dave Hall said. “He only threw 53 pitches in the first five innings, so that was a pretty solid performance.”

Lathrop coach Sam Morton was impressed with Brooks’ effort on the mound.

“I’ve coached that young man on a lot of other teams and he’s really grown up to become a fine young ballplayer,” Morton said. “We were able to rally a little bit at the end, but he held up and finished it.”

Robert Stolzberg led the Wolfpack offensive attack with a 2-for-4 performance.

With Karl’s knuckler keeping the Wolfpack off-balance in the second game, the Malemutes mustered up enough offense to earn the split.

“Kyle Olson got a big hit for us and that kind of got us rolling,” Morton said. “When one person catches fire it kind of goes through the whole team and our bats really started to come around.”

When Karl tired late in the game, Torgen Soderlund came in to prevent a West Valley comeback.

“Jake did a wonderful job and then Torgen came in and did a great job of finishing up.”

While Morton was impressed with Brooks in the opener, Hall was just as impressed with Karl in the nightcap.

“It was great to see a knuckleballer back in high school baseball,” Hall said. “He didn’t use it all the time, but he made a great showing and that pitch definitely kept us off balance.”

All-in-all, Morton said, Saturday’s twinbill couldn’t have ended much better.

“It was a great day for baseball,” Morton said. “We had wonderful weather, the barbecue between games was great and each team got a win.”

Eielson sweeps

The Delta Junction Huskies didn’t go away quietly on Saturday. They made the Eielson Ravens sweat.

First, the Huskies forced the Ravens to bring one of their top starters in for a relief appearance, then they took the Ravens to nine innings before falling 11-9 in Game 1 of a doubleheader in Delta. The Ravens went on to claim Game 2 17-6.

“Delta has always been a team, they never quit, they always play hard and they’re always great sports. They play hard and they make everybody that they play, play hard,” Eielson coach Dennis Gould said. “They took it to us the first game and made us think about what we were doing in the second one.”

Justyn Nutt’s RBI single in the top of the ninth provided the game-winning run and Niko Schafnitz pitched five innings of relief, allowing one run and striking out the side in the eighth and ninth to help the Ravens squeak out a Game 1 win.

“Delta’s a well-coached team. They put together a good game plan,” Gould said. “They really worked us hard. Their pitcher was on and we were not. We just kept plugging away.”

Ben Lauritzen led off the top of the ninth with a single, then stole second and third. Nutt then broke the 9-9 tie after beating out a dribbler to third base.

It was the second important run Lauritzen delivered for the Ravens. Lauritzen’s hit to second base plated Schafnitz in the sixth inning to make it 9-9.

The Ravens had more breathing room in the second game, jumping on the Huskies for six runs in the top of the first and holding an 8-4 lead after two.

“The second game, we came out and played a lot better,” Gould said.

Austin Samulowitz made his first start of the season, striking out three while forcing the Huskies to beat the ball into the ground.

“Austin has some kind of offspeed junk that he throws and was able to keep them on their heels,” Gould said. “He pitched a real good game, had them hitting the ball right to us.”

Nick Gould scored two runs and drove in two more for the Ravens, while Lauritzen connected on three singles while walking once in the second game.