The Kayhi softball team is in Sitka this weekend for a three-game series that includes the Lady Kings’ final two conference games of the season. Kayhi enters the series tied with Juneau-Douglas: Yadaa.at Kalé for second place in the region with a 6-4 conference record, while Thunder Mountain leads the conference at 8-2. The weekend will have final seeing implications for next week’s Region V Tournament.
There is a possible scenario in which the three teams end the weekend in a three-way tie for first place. In order to force such a situation, Kayhi would need to win both of their conference games against Sitka, and Juneau-Douglas would need to win both of theirs against Thunder Mountain this weekend. Sitka is 0-10 in conference play, and Thunder Mountain is 3-1 against Juneau-Douglas this season.
In the event of a tie, the decision would come down to head-to-head conference records first, then the least number of runs allowed head-to-head, the least number of runs allowed in all conference games and finally, a blind draw conducted by the Region V president or secretary.
Kayhi head coach Kalea Allen is more focused on playing good softball and letting the chips fall where they may this weekend.
“It should be a good, successful weekend where our JV and varsity can play some quality ball,” Allen said on a Thursday afternoon phone call. “It’ll be the last series for JV, so we hope they’re able to string some stuff together and play some quality innings and get a few more wins under their belt. Definitely our varsity, being our last conference games, we’re going to play hard and come out on top, and we hope we can do that every inning.”
Allen isn’t hoping for an unlikely scenario to present itself, and is instead treating the upcoming Region V tournament as if Kayhi will enter with the second seed.
She conceded that it “would have been nice” to enter the tournament with the number one seed, but winning is what matters at the end of the day. She also thinks that coming in as a number two seed could help motivate her team.
“It’s a good place to be, we’ve been there before kind of in the middle of the pack and I like knowing that you have to be competitive in the region tournament,” Allen said. “The whole goal is to go in and win the region tournament so that way we can be on a good stretch going into the state tournament and continue that postseason mentality.”
Kayhi and Sitka varsity squads will face off at 6 p.m on Friday.; a doubleheader with games starting at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. will follow on Saturday.
The Lady Kings JV will play a 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. doubleheader on Friday, and finish with a single game at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
*This article was originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News*
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