Homer team takes area tournament

Point West Video, a team from Homer, recovered from a 4-2 deficit in the fourth inning to defeat Gas Light Lounge, a team from Anchorage, 6-4 in the championship game of the Alaska State Coed Division E Tournament at the Kenai ballfields Sunday.

Point West scored one run in the fifth inning and three runs in the sixth inning to pull off the comeback and draw a close to the two-day tournament, which featured a host of similarly close games.

"I've been playing a lot of years, and I've kept score at a lot of tournaments, and I've never seen this many close games," said Melonee Long, the district commissioner for the Kenai Peninsula Softball Association. "The teams here were very evenly matched."

Long said that of the 44 games played at the tournament, more than half were decided by three runs or less. Fifteen of the games were decided by just one run.

The game that summed up the tournament best happened on Friday. First National Bank of Anchorage -- Anchor Town Sports and First National Bank of Anchorage -- Valdez battled for 11 innings before the Anchor Town side finally pulled out a 13-12 victory. Games are scheduled for seven innings.

"The close games definitely were the talk of the tournament. That, and the weather," said Long, referring to the pair of sunny, warm days enjoyed by players.

Of the 21 teams at the tournament, five were from the Kenai Peninsula.

Point West Video did the best of the those five, going undefeated and landing five players -- Shane Harrington, Dana Harrington, Saundra Hudson, Chris Perk and Ryan Bundy -- on the all-tournament team.

Also from Point West, Laureen Wentz was named the women's MVP and Bjorn Hansen was named the men's MVP.

Hair Tech of Kenai took fourth at the tournament, placing Robert Carson and Rhonda Burnett on the all-tournament team. Katrina Stanford, who patrolled left field for Hair Tech, won the women's gold glove award.

Hair Tech finished the tournament with a 3-2 record and was eliminated on Sunday in a 9-8 loss to Gas Light Lounge of Anchorage.

Also from the central peninsula, Universal Valve was eliminated in two games and Vagabond finished 1-2 at the tournament.

The Grog Shop from Homer finished sixth at the tourney and also won the team sportsmanship award.

Other teams in the top six were Excell Physical Therapy of the Matanuska-Susitna valleys in third and K & W Interiors of Anchorage in fifth.

The Alaska State Women's Division E Tournament will be Aug. 25 and 26 at the Kenai ballfields. Long is expecting about 16 teams to participate.