The Mariners played Ketchikan twice, Sitka twice and Juneau once, losing all five games by 10 runs or more.
"They were pretty well polished," said Head Softball Coach Bill Bell of the opposing teams.
The Mariner team is in transition this season and learning to gel, Bell said.
"Teams in the past three years have played together since they were 8 years old," he said.
"And these girls this year haven't spent that much time playing together."
Trips like the one over the weekend should help.
On Thursday, Homer lost 0-12 against the defending small schools state champ Ketchikan and lost to Sitka 1-14.
On Friday, Homer lost to Ketchikan again 0-12.
On Saturday, the Mariners dropped their second game to Sitka 3-16 and lost to big school Juneau 4-14.
Bell said mistakes on defense played a big role in the losses.
"We made two or three errors an inning so we had to get five or six outs each inning," he said. "You can't do that against these kind of teams."
Not being able to practice on an actual softball field so far this season also hurt the Mariners, he said.
Sitka, for instance, took its team outside to practice for a week in sunny San Diego, Bell said.
But with the conference schedule beginning Saturday, Bell expects his team to turn things around.
"We had a really good practice on Monday," he said. "I think it will motivate them.
"There's no reason we can't bounce back for the conference season."
The Mariners next game is scheduled for Saturday in Soldotna.
Ben Stuart can be reached at ben.stuart@homernews.com.
Five different Kardinals found the back of the net and senior goaltender Justin Wisniewski allowed just one late goal in his first game since undergoing two knee surgeries in a six-month span in leading Kenai to its first win of the season, 5-1 over visiting Homer.
"This is definitely a much better effort than we had against Grace," Kardinals coach David Landry said, citing his team's 3-3 tie on April 15. "And you can tell we had at least one game under our belt. The boys have had a few chances to be outside now, so that's a big, big difference.
"And again, it's the touches on the ball in a real game situation not so much a game situation but a game surface, and that makes all the difference in the world."
Clearly, it does. One of nine seniors on the team, Cory Toombs, staked Kenai to a 1-0 lead when he one-timed a cross from Kristian Larson past Homer goaltender Ben Daigle in the 10th minute of action. Freshman Codi Woodcock then got into the action seven minutes later when he beat Daigle to a ball in the box and tapped it over the goalie's head for a 2-0 lead.
It stayed that way until halftime thanks, to Wisniewski, who, in his first action since last season's state tournament appearance, collided with Homer's Sam Satre while making a strong save in the 21st minute.
"That's the only way he knows how to play," Landry said of Wisniewski's aggressiveness. "I'm just glad that he survived that, and little by little, he'll start to get some of that confidence back and he won't be thinking about it as much."
Senior McKenan Steinbeck made it 3-0 in the 43rd minute when he beat his defender to the inside and unleashed a shot that rolled past Daigle's right side, and senior Jeremy Narlock padded Kenai's lead five minutes later when he tapped a ball past a diving Daigle.
Satre, though, eventually got the better of Wisniewski in the 69th minute when he beat the Kardinals' keeper to a ball in the box and booted it directly over the goalie's head.
"I was sorry that we had to give up a late goal like we did," Landry conceded, "but that's one of those defensive breakdowns that we need to fix."
Larson then netted a goal around the 76th minute when he corralled a pass through the middle and shot it off Daigle and the post for the 5-1 final.
Kenai now turns its attention to Soldotna, which placed fourth at state last season and hosts the Kardinals on Thursday.
"I never want to lose to them. None of these boys do. That's the nature of the rivalry," Landry said. "I don't care if we're playing pinochle or we're playing tiddlywinks, nobody wants to lose to SoHi. They don't want to lose to us. I think it's healthy."
The Mariners play at Nikiski today, Houston Friday and Wasilla Saturday.
Matthew Carroll is a reporter for the Peninsula Clarion.
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Homer Alaska - Sports -
Story last updated at
8:48 PM on
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
M's battle tough SE competition
By Ben Stuart By MATTHEW CARROLL
Staff Writer Morris News Service - Alaska
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