When the Alaska School Activities Association awarded a three-year bid to Lathrop High in Fairbanks to host the state high school softball tournaments, it left Anchorage with a big hole to fill in the fastpitch schedule. But instead of saying farewell to the statewide softball tourney altogether, Anchorage Sports Association softball director Brad Peterson decided to add a second big dance to the springtime softball scene.
"Fairbanks has state for the next three years, so I felt it would be a good idea to have a big tournament here to give Anchorage something," Peterson said Friday in between games at the Blue and Gold Battle tournament.
The new tourney is one of two being held simultaneously at Albrecht Fields, joining the already established East/West Invitational to create a softball smorgasbord at the four-field complex off of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Between the eight-team Blue and Gold tourney, the four-team East/West Invitational and a slate of junior varsity games, the area is ground zero for Alaska fastpitch softball.
It's also a proving ground where some of the best teams from both the large and small schools divisions can test their mettle against each other.
Among the teams who traveled to Anchorage for the two tournaments are perennial small school powers Sitka, Juneau and Homer, as well as Thunder Mountain and all eight Anchorage-area schools. The highly competitive nature of the event was on display on Friday when Sitka -- which won four straight small schools titles between 2009 and '13 -- took on three-time large schools champion East. The Wolves gave the T-birds as much as they could handle, eventually falling 5-3 to the Anchorage nine.
Sitka coach Jael McCarty said the tournament is a great place for her team -- which defeated South during Thursday's opening round of games -- to show what it's made of.
"It's really good for our confidence to come in here and beat one of the big schools and play tough," McCarty said.
Southeast Alaska teams are perpetual softball titans (Juneau won the 2014 small schools title), and the Wolves' Elle Gray said the Anchorage trip is a good way to prove the region's ability.
"Overall the level of play is very strong down there," said Gray, who recently moved to Southeast from Chugiak.
Sitka trailed 5-2 heading into the seventh inning against East and had the tying run on second base when East pitcher Daisy Page pitched her way out of the jam. The T-birds were helped in the game once again by slugger Alexis Joubert, whose three-run homer in the fifth inning proved to be the difference maker. Joubert also homered three times on Thursday, giving her four round-trippers in her first three tournament games.
Peterson said the best part of the tournament is that it allows teams to figure out where they stand headlining into the final weeks of the regular season.
"Everyone wants to see how everyone is stacking up against each other," he said.
In other East/West Invite games Friday, Sitka best West 7-4 and West downed South 8-6. East and Sitka will play a rematch of their Friday battle at 3:15 p.m. Saturday for the tournament title, while South and West will play at 3:15 p.m. in a consolation game.
In other Blue and Gold Battle games Friday, Juneau beat Homer 16-4, Homer edged Dimond 14-10, Juneau knocked off Service 4-1 and Chugiak got past Thunder Mountain 5-3.
Along with high-level softball, the tournaments also feature food vendors selling hot dogs, cheeseburgers and pulled pork sandwiches as well as booths set up to sell softball equipment and sporting goods. Peterson said he wants the tournaments to become something of a centerpiece for the local high school softball scene.
"That's kind of what I was going for, to make it a destination type tournament that people would want to come to," he said.
Schoenborn said the event is a great way for athletes who don't normally get to rub elbows to spend time getting to know each other.
"What do we have, 3,000 kids and (Sitka has) 300?" he said. "It's a great experience for all the kids."
The tournament -- which has no admission fees -- continues Saturday, with games beginning at 11:30 a.m.
This article has been corrected from its original print version, which misstated the score of the South vs. West game.