Championships aren’t won in June.
That’s been the recurring lesson American Legion’s Juneau Post 25 baseball team has learned over the last four seasons.
Since the return of American Legion baseball to Juneau in 2013, the Post 25 squad’s average winning percentage hovers around .750. Yet each season the team has finished in third place in the American Legion Alaska State Tournament around the end of July.
The beginning of the march to this year’s state tournament — and possible championship — begins today, Saturday and Sunday at Adair-Kennedy Park as Juneau Post 25 welcomes Anchorage Post 21 (Dimond) for four games.
Swofford and a handful of his Post 25 teammates including Quin Gist, Donavin McCurley and Kasey Watts finished in fourth place at the Alaska School Activities Association State Baseball Championships on June 3.
“The last couple of years, in my opinion, we’ve burned out at the end of the year,” Bryce Swofford said on Tuesday at the first practice of the season.
The Juneau Post 25 went on 24 game winning streak last season before falling to Wasilla Post 25 and later Service Post 28 in the state tournament.
Newly-minted Thunder Mountain High School graduate Zeb Storie says that success comes from reliable defense and saavy offense.
“Defense has always been a strength of ours and good pitching,” the shortstop said. “We know how to manufacture runs in all sorts of fashions whether it’s hitting, stealing (bases), bunting — we can score runs however we need to.”
Juneau Post 25 shutout teams six times last season and regularly limited teams to five or less runs.
One key piece that will be missing from this year’s team is shortstop and catcher Michael Cesar. The incoming JDHS senior was invited to play on a select 18-U team in Seattle.
“I didn’t want to leave this team, mainly because I had unfinished business from last year and the year before that,” Cesar said. “… This is a really exciting team and it’s a hard team to leave for sure.”
American Legion Post 25 Schedule
June 9 – Dimond, 6:30 p.m., Adair-Kennedy Field
June 10 – Dimond, noon, 3 p.m., Adair-Kennedy Field
June 11 – Dimond, 11 a.m., Adair-Kennedy Field
June 16 – Wasilla, 6:30 p.m., Adair-Kennedy Field
June 17 – Wasilla, noon, 3 p.m., Adair-Kennedy Field
June 18 – Wasilla, 11 a.m., Adair-Kennedy Field
June 24 – at East Anchorage, noon, 3 p.m.
June 25 – at Chugiak, noon, 3 p.m.
June 26 – at Bartlett, 6:30 p.m.
June 27 – Ketchikan, 3 p.m., 6 p.m. (in Anchorage)
June 28 – at Bartlett, 6:30 p.m.
July 14 – Service, 6:30 p.m., Adair-Kennedy Field
July 15 – Service, noon, 3 p.m., Adair-Kennedy Field
July 16 – Service, noon, Adair-Kennedy Field
July 20 – at Bartlett
July 21 – at Kodiak, 3 p.m., 6 p.m.
July 22 – at Eagle River, noon, 3 p.m.
Juneau Post 25 Roster
Logan Lesman
Owen Mendoza
Chandler Lewis
Zeb Storie
Finn Collins
Kasey Watts
Quin Gist
Alex Muir
Bryce Swofford
Donavin McCurley
Philip Wall
Brandon Keeler
Bobby Cox
Taylor Funderburk
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
