[Elendil]

Game Seven

Downtown Juneau

Dave Gibbon (12-6, 3.01)

vs.


Anthony Sonier (5-3, 3.31)

September 10, 2011 - This one was for all the marbles. Could Juneau complete a remarkable comeback from 3-1 down?

Neither team went with its Game 1/4 starters. For Bethel it was a managerial decision. Gibbon had pitched quite well during the year, so he would go instead of Dave Gould, who had been fairly ineffective in this series. For Juneau it was a decision they would rather not have had to make. Don Taggart was out with a finger blister, and thus they had to turn the ball over to the rookie Sonier. He had pitched well this year, but this was Game Seven. You want your ace out there.

It was unseasonably chilly and windy this Saturday evening, but there was no sign of rain. Fans packed the 1,200-seat ballpark.

Unfortunately for Bethel, Gibbon was wild. He walked six over his seven innings of work, throwing 126 pitches. Sonier also struggled with control, walking five but striking out eight over seven innings, throwing 127 pitches. Both teams were also plagued with mistakes in the field, each making two errors. For Juneau the hitting was just more timely. They plated runs in first and fourth, and two more in the fifth to take a 4-0 lead.

Bethel finally got on the board in the seventh when Adam Joly doubled in a run, and then added another in the eighth but with runners on 2nd and 3rd and one out failed to capitalize further. Juneau then made it 5-2 going to the 9th.

Colwill came in and retired the side on seven pitches, and the celebration was on. While the Senators piled on in the infield, the Mushers could only shake their heads and wonder how it had come to this. There had been so many moments in this series when they could have put it away, from the 14 men left on base in Game Two to the devastating blow that was Game Six.

In downtown Juneau, the bars - yes, this is Alaska, there are plenty of bars even in the small towns - exploded with excited fans who spilled out onto the streets shouting, high-fiving, and even spontaneously chanting. Somehow the first championship had not registered quite as much. This was all the sweeter because of how it had happened, because the Alaskan League was now a much bigger deal than it had been just two years ago, and because the Juneau Senators were the first team to win it all twice. They were the first true dynasty of the league, and they had shown up all those Anchoragites who thought the league belonged to them (so they said in the panhandle).

The Alaskan Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award was controversially given to Jack Hatt; it was the first time a player from the losing team had won the award. But Juneau had had no truly outstanding individual performances. Their victory had been a team effort and had relied on its fair share of clutch hitting. Hatt had started two games, posting a 0.53 ERA in 17 innings of work, yielding no home runs and four walks while striking out 11. He was clearly the best player on either side this series.