Juneau-Douglas head coach Jaime Kissner asked Joe Kohan if he wanted the ball for Saturday's championship game of the ASAA State High School Baseball Tournament at Growden Memorial Park.
The 6-foot right-handed senior didn't even have to think about wanting to pitch against Southeast Conference rival Sitka, the winner of the last three state finals at Growden.
Kohan joked at first in response to the Crimson Bears' first-year head coach.
"I said 'You're the coach.' But I knew he was going to put me in," Kohan said. " I just said, 'You're the coach, put the best team on the field.' Then I said, 'Hell yeah! I'll get the ball.'
"I had a lot of motivation going into the game. So I wanted to get these hitters out, definitely.''
Kohan's desire to pitch was evident in the 9-2 victory, as he registered 13 strikeouts, limited the Wolves to four hits and retired the first nine batters he faced.
Saturday's motivation for Kohan, the Alaska Gatorade Player of the Year and a University of Nevada recruit, included losing to the Wolves in last year's championship game at Growden, and seeing Sitka get to represent Southeast at the 2005 and 2006 state tournaments. Until last year, the state tournament was a four-team format with only the top teams from the four Class 4A regions in Alaska.
"We were losing to them three years - my freshman, sophomore and junior years -,'' said Kohan, "and definitely, I wanted to go out on a win and show them we were the best in the state.''
Juneau-Douglas won eight of nine regular season games against Sitka, and in those contest, Kohan was mostly a reliever, said Wolves head coach Ed Conway.
He went the distance on Saturday, delivering 113 pitches, mostly fastball. His output included 23 pitches combined inn the first and fifth innings, where he each struck out the side in order.
"He had everything. This is the best we've seen all year, for sure," said Sitka head coach Ed Conway. "He stepped it up in the his championship game. He really had us off balance.
"He was pulling that fastball by us ... he locates his fastball really good and mixes up with the curve ball. He's pretty tough.''
So were the rest of the Crimson Bears, who produced 11 hits against Wolves starter Ryan Staton and reliever Traz Hill.
Catcher Aaron Cohen went 3-for-3 with two RBI; center fielder Corey Mahar finished 2-for-5 with a run and designated hitter Shane Rud had one hit but drove in two runs for the 21-6 Crimson Bears.
Third baseman Amon Johnson had an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh for Sitka (12-11) after Kohan struck him out in his first two at-bats.
By DANNY MARTIN
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner