Juneau Majors defeat Ketchikan for District 2 title
- Klas Stolpe
- Jul 19
- 9 min read
Updated: Jul 20
Gastineau Channel Little League heads to state tourney in Anchorage
Gastineau Channel Little League All-Star Zachary Ritter put a single down the third base line in the bottom of the fourth inning to give his Juneau teammates a 13-3 run-rule, walk-off win for the Alaska District 2 Majors Baseball Tournament Championship against Ketchikan on Saturday at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park.
“I was just hoping to get a hit,” Ritter said. “It felt good to score a run and help send the team on to Anchorage. Now we want to win a couple games and make it to San Bernardino. Our team bonds in hitting and pitching.”
Juneau’s 10- to 12-year-old All-Stars will now travel to Anchorage to play in the state tournament Friday through Monday for a chance to represent Alaska at the regional tournament in San Bernardino, California, Aug. 2-8.
“The kids played solid baseball,” GCLL co-coach Matt McGuan said. “They had great at-bats. They played great defense. They did a great job of staying focused, watching for signs, reading the play. I’ve got to give them a lot of credit, because they just played outstanding baseball. Ketchikan came in and played their hearts out. They had beat us during pool play, and it was a good wake-up call. They're a good team. They're sharp and we knew that if we were going to win this, we had to play hard. We had to stay focused. We had to do everything right, and the kids pulled that off. They did a great job.”
Ketchikan threatened in the top of the first inning with Cooper Johnstone and Avery Korn reaching with singles, but Juneau third baseman Landon Love fielded a ground ball by Ketchikan’s Ripken Howe and stepped on his bag for an out. Ketchikan’s Mason Garrison earned a walk to load the bases, but Juneau starting pitcher Colin Daniels struck out the next batter and then fielded a ground ball down the first base line and tagged that batter out to get Juneau off the field.
Juneau scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning. Mitch Host led off with a single and stole second. Colt Winkelman earned a walk, and Host stole third. Ritter tripled, scoring Host and Winkelman. Gavin Ludeman earned a walk and stole second with Mikhail Venechuk at bat. A passed ball allowed Ritter and Winkelman to score for 4-0.
Daniels struck out the first Ketchikan batter in the top of the second inning and after a Ketchikan single by Parker Jones, Juneau third baseman Love got a tough fly ball. Another Ketchikan single by Luke Hageman put runners on first and second, but Juneau’s Love fielded a hard ground ball for the third out to end the threat.
In the bottom of the second inning, Juneau’s Landon Gamulo earned a one-out walk and stole second base. Milian Mitchell reached on a bunt that put Gamulo on third.
“The bunt is hard to do,” Mitchell said. “I have been working on it. I have been practicing baseball for five years. I first played when I was seven. Anchorage will probably have fast pitchers so we will have to be ready to play.”
Host hit a single scoring Gamulo, and on a fielding error Mitchell also scored for 6-0.
Love singled, scoring Host for 7-0. Colt Winkelman was hit by a pitch, putting runners on first and third. Ritter singled, scoring Love and, on a fielding error, Winkelman scored for 9-0. A passed ball with Daniels at bat allowed Ritter to score for 10-0.
Ketchikan scored two runs in the top of the third inning as Johnstone hit a lead-off double and moved to third on a one-out single by Ripken Howe and scored on a fly ball out to left field. A passed ball with Henry Paulson at bat allowed Howe to score, and Ketchikan trailed 10-2.
Juneau threatened in the bottom of the third inning with Reagon Talatoa earning a lead-off walk and moving to second on a bunt by Indie Strong. Ketchikan got an inning-ending double play with left fielder Liam Garrison catching a tough fly ball and throwing to first base brother Mason Garrison to double off Strong.
Ketchikan added their final run in the top of the fourth inning. Takeshi Schramm earned a lead-off walk and advanced on a two-out ground ball by Jones. Zander Howe and Hageman earned walks to load the bases on Juneau starter Daniels.
Daniels would earn the win with 3.2 innings of solid work, striking out four Ketchikan batters, but was relieved with the bases loaded.
“It feels pretty good,” Daniels said. “To win a championship feels good. My curveball was really working.”
Gavin Ludeman relieved Daniels and walked Ketchikan’s L. Garrison, scoring a run. Ludeman then fielded a hard ground ball hit back to the mound to end the Ketchikan threat.
“My mindset was just to close out the game and get the ending,” Ludeman said. “We can score runs and hit.”
Ludeman comes from a long family line of Juneau baseball players.
"Now I have some bragging rights,” he added.
Juneau’s Gamulo hit a one-out single in the bottom of the fourth inning, and Mitchell rapped a hard ground ball that Ketchikan third baseman Paulson gathered in and threw to second baseman Howe to out Gamulo for two away.
Juneau’s Host hit a fly ball that was dropped in the infield and moved Mitchell to third.
“It felt pretty good,” Host said after the win. “Everybody was excited. It was a great feeling. This is my first time ever going to Anchorage, and everybody is excited and happy to go.”
Love followed with a single scoring Mitchell for an 11-3 lead, and Love kept running through first base as Host ran through second to reach third safely.
“I just keep going until they get me out, I just keep running,” Love said. “I saw them making a play on third, and I just kept running through first base because I knew no one was on second.”
That smart team baseball allowed Host to score on a passed ball with Winkelman at bat and Love to move to third base, and Juneau had a 12-3 lead.
Winkelman would earn a walk and Ritter hit the game-ending ground ball through the Ketchikan infield.
The tournament started with pool play. GCLL defeated Prince of Wales 14-0, and Ketchikan defeated the Petersburg/Wrangell Stikine Grizzlies 24-0 last Sunday. Ketchikan defeated POW 19-3 and GCLL defeated PSG/WRG 12-2 on Monday. POW defeated PSG/WRG 19-8 and Ketchikan defeated GCLL 7-1 Tuesday.
Pool play set up the double-elimination bracket. Opening tournament games on Wednesday saw KTN topple PSG/WRG 15-0, and GCLL defeated POW 5-0. On Thursday POW eliminated PSG/WRG 16-12, and GCLL stopped KTN 11-1. On Friday, KTN eliminated POW 15-6 setting up Saturday’s title clash.
“What's special about this team is there's not the one guy that everybody looks to come through in the clutch,” GCLL’s McGuan said. “They're just all good players. They play well together. They do a great job of supporting each other, and they know they can depend on each other. They know that any one of them can come through in that moment and make the great player get the great hit.”
Juneau will face the winner of the District I championship game between Abbott-O-Rabbit and Dimond-West being played Sunday.
The Juneau All-Stars are #4 Gavin Ribao, #5 Ludeman, #7 Winkelman, #8 Mitchell, #9 Host, #10 Gamulo, #11 Strong, #13 Talatoa, #14 Daniels, #15 Mikhail Venechuk, #16 Love, #17 Ritter and #18 Quinton Burick. Manager is Michele Ritter. Coaches are Jason Love and Matt McGuan.
The Ketchikan All-Stars included #5 Kobe Nall, #9 Howe, #10 Johnstone, #17 Korn, #18 Jones, #20 Hageman, #23 Howe, #24 Schramm, #26 L. Garrison, #30 Xavier Hill, #54 Paulson, #55 M. Garrison. Manager is Kyle Howe. Coaches are Corey Howe and Tory Korn.
The Petersburg/Wrangell All Stars included #8 Jackson Zweifel (Psg), #10 Malachi Harrison (Wrg), #16 Jaycee Coil (Psg), #18 Chandler Roane (Wrg), #20 Hailey Gablehouse (Wrg), #22 Jackson Ford (Psg), #26 Grady Walker (Psg), #30 Braden Fletcher (Psg), #32 Kyler Angerman (Wrg), #34 Jude Johnson (Wrg), #38 Brooke Ostrander (Wrg), #45 Jonah Hurst (Wrg) and #46 Dylan Allison (Psg). Manager is Dustin Johnson. Coach is Scott Zweifel.
The Prince of Wales All-Stars included #1 Karl Lingley, #5 Noah Edenshaw, #6 Alex Vickers, #7 David Skultka, #8 Drew Ponce, #15 Alec Isaacs, #16 Ricardo Johnson, #18 Kayson Gray, #20 Sergeant Stonecipher, #21 Gavin Grant, #23 Gabriel Lingley and #28 Skipp Haseltine. Manager is Brianne Goheen. Coaches are Travis Johnson and Paul Lingley.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at kstolpe@juneauindependent.com.
