For the second Friday in a row, the Juneau-Douglas High School baseball team won a low-scoring game with a walk-off single. Last week Elliot Gifford was the hero. This week it was Niko Hebert.
The senior hit a hard grounder to centerfield to score Quin Gist in the bottom of the seventh inning Friday night at Adair-Kennedy as the Crimson Bears won 5-4 over Ketchikan.
It was Hebert’s third hit of the game as the senior also singled in the fourth and sixth innings.
“I guess I was feeling on tonight,” Hebert said. “It was the whole team — the bats were rolling — not just (mine).”
Jacob Dale, Michael Cesar, Luke Mallinger and Kasey Watts also racked up hits for JDHS.
With the win, the Crimson Bears are guaranteed a spot at the state tournmaent in three weeks. This year, for the first time, the team with the best conference record receives an automatic bid to state.
“It’s a great feeling,” JDHS Athletic Director Chad Bentz said of winning the conference, “and to win it like that — it was a game of adversity big time.”
Kings pitcher Spencer Erickson struck out five and kept the Crimson Bears’ bats silent for three innings.
With the game tied at two in the bottom of the fifth inning, Mallinger’s half swing connected with the ball. Erickson fielded the ball between homeplate and third base and threw to home. The throw missed Sande and went to the back stop as both Cesar and McCurley scored on the play.
The Kings tied the game at four in the next inning, capitalizing on two errors by JDHS to score two runs.
Watts got the start on the mound for the Crimson Bears. The junior struck out nine batters and didn’t give up a single hit until the fifth inning when Watts walked three batters.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
