Wood Bat tourney carries on legacy of Coz

From 1975 until his death in 2020, former Twins manager and head coach Lance Coz built a Post 20 Twins program known for great baseball and even better hospitality.

That legacy continues Friday through Sunday at the Lance Coz Wood Bat Tournament at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai.

Friday saw South Post 4 defeat Auke Bay Post 25 13-5, the Twins defeat South 11-2 and Madisonville (Kentucky) Post 6 defeat Auke Bay 9-2.

Twins head coach Robb Quelland said Coz used to put in a tremendous amount of time at the field, particularly at the tournament that has been renamed for him.

“Lance would be very excited,” Quelland said. “He would be ecstatic that we won, but he’d also be ecstatic with the quality of the team we’re putting on the field, and what we’re playing against.”

Under Coz, the Twins qualified for state 43 times in his 45 years, won state titles in 1991, 1995, 2012 and 2016, and produced big-leaguers Marshall Boze and Chris Mabeus.

South coach Terry Dannenbring said Post 20 remains a formidable opponent under Quelland.

“Kenai is one of the best teams in the state,” Dannenbring said. “I was hoping we’d have a little better showing. But we’ll get better.”

Auke Bay head coach Joe Tompkins said he’s been involved in Little League or Legion baseball in Juneau for about 35 years now.

Tompkins said this is his first time to Kenai with the Legion squad.

“We’ve been putting it out to Legion, ‘Hey, we’d love to go to Kenai,’” Tompkins said. “And it’s beautiful.”

In addition to beauty, Tompkins said it’s good to give his players a close look at the Twins program. Tompkins took the previous two years off as Legion coach, and last year he said the program didn’t field a team.

“Robb runs a good program here, and just to see the way the kids all help out and stuff like that, it’s amazing,” Tompkins said. “They’re just building great human beings over here. It’s something that we need to work on, and every team needs to look toward.

“They’re doing bases, they’re taking care of the field, they’re spray-painting, they’re digging dirt. If you want to play here, that’s what you have to put in. It shows so much to the community.”

Coz built up a tradition of feeding opposing teams a great meal in the middle of regular season doubleheaders.

As welcome as all of those meals are, the banquet at this tournament took a step up to legendary status.

Madisonville head coach Jamie Mills said the team will be here for 12 days and has been planning out meals.

“So I text Robb and I said, ‘Hey, is there a meal at the banquet?’” Mills said. “And he’s like, ‘Oh, yeah.’

“So everybody is thinking we’re going to have hamburgers and hotdogs, or whatever.”

Mills said he learned the menu would include salmon, halibut and ribs.

“And I told my coaches that, and they all looked at me and went, ‘What?’” Mills said. “They love salmon, so that will probably be a highlight.”

Mills said it is the first time to Alaska for everybody on the team. He received the invite a few years ago, but said the team wasn’t in position financially or competitively for the long trip.

He said the Legion post was willing to sponsor this seasoned group, so they made the trip, arriving early Thursday and stopping at Whittier on the way down. The team also spent Thursday night enjoying Kenai beach.

Monday is the team’s big day off from baseball, so they plan on fishing the Kenai River.

“They all love to fish, because we’re from Kentucky,” Mills said. “Of course, we don’t fish for salmon. We just fish for bass or crappie.”

Twins 11, Wolverines 2

The Twins swung the wood bats well, collecting 10 hits in the game and taking a 9-0 lead after four innings.

“We hit almost always with wood bats in the cage,” Quelland said. “We’re very familiar with swinging wood bats, so it’s not like it’s the first time we’ve put them in their hands.”

Jett Brophy was 2 for 4 with two runs, Matthew Schilling had two runs and three RBIs, Jacob Joanis scored twice, Jackson Koetitz had two RBIs, Jayden Stuyvesant was 2 for 4 with three RBIs, and Gavin Peterson was 2 for 3 with two RBIs.

It’s still early in the season, so Quelland used five pitchers. Jack Harper, Malakai BeDunnah, Tristen Roberts, Brophy and Clyde Clemens combined to give up two runs — one earned — on four hits.

Schilling led the defense in center field by robbing Evan Baldwin of extra bases when Schilling outran the ball to the left-center gap.

“Oh my goodness,” Quelland said. “We’re watching from 250 feet away. There’s only a couple that can get that one.”

The coach also liked the work of Ari Miller behind the plate.

Jack Zuspan took the loss for South, going four innings and giving up nine runs — six earned — on nine hits.

Dannenbring said the Wolverines were not able to back up a good game earlier in the day against Auke Bay.

“They’ve got to be tougher,” he said of his team. “As the day gets longer, they kind of lose their focus. They’re super young, but we’ve got to get better.”

Rangers 9, Midnight Suns 2

Although Madisonville led 4-0 after four innings, Mills thought his team got off to a slow start.

In the later innings, the coach said his team started hitting better.

They also turned in some impressive defensive plays. Left fielder Xzavier Martin cut down Micah Nelson trying to score in the sixth, and catcher Conner Mitchuson erased Marcus Mendoza when he tried to advance on a pitch in the dirt in the seventh.

“After my guys were seeing the pitching the second and third time through, then we kind of started hitting a little better,” Mills said.

Mitchuson had two hits and three runs, Micah Austin was 2 for 4, Easton Mefford had two RBIs and Martin was 2 for 4 with two RBIs.

The Midnight Suns only lost the hits battle 12-11. Hunter Carte was 2 for 4, Madden Mendoza was 2 for 4, Kasen Ludeman was 2 for 4, Noah Lewis was 2 for 4 and Drew Cadigan-McAdoo was 3 for 4.

Auke Bay cut the lead to 4-2 in the fifth before errors keyed a four-run rally by Madisonville in the bottom of the inning.

“When you battle back, you’ve got to keep battling back, and you can’t make those errors,” Tompkins said. “Not against a team like that. They’re a well-oiled machine.”

Mills said 14 players on the team can pitch. Jayce Weaver got the win, going four innings and giving up two runs on six hits.

Tompkins said his pitchers did a great job keeping the hard-swinging Rangers in check.

Cayman Huff gave up four runs — two earned — on six hits in 3 1-3 innings, Christian Nelson gave up four runs — two earned — on four hits in 1 2-3 innings, and Hunter Carte gave up a run on a hit in an inning.

Wolverines 13, Midnight Suns 5

Auke Bay hurt itself in the field, with both teams getting six hits, but South playing errorless ball compared to the five miscues of the Midnight Suns.

Mark Warren had four RBIs for South, while Caleb Bonin was 3 for 4 with two runs and three RBIs, Evan Baldwin scored three times and Braun Precosky scored three times.

Grayson Stanek-Alward went three innings, giving up three runs on five hits, for the win.

For Auke Bay, Kasen Ludeman was 2 for 3 and Noah Lewis was 2 for 2.

Drew Cadigan-McAdoo was tagged with the loss for giving up four runs — one earned — on four hits in 2 2-3 innings.