Juneau’s Alaska Legion baseball team hits the road

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Juneau’s Auke Bay Post 25 got their first taste of the 2025 Alaska Legion Baseball road competition over the weekend, playing four games in three days in the Lance Coz Wood Bat Tournament at Kenai before starting league play.

“The team came together and played together and communicated out loud,” Auke Bay Post 25 head coach Joe Tompkins said. “And the players didn’t squabble among themselves. When that happens they have more fun, and when they have more fun they play better together and just have better attitudes.”

Teamwork was extremely important as Juneau was using country email list the tournament to test players in multiple positions, both defensively and offensively, as they searched for various starting lineups.

“We went into the tournament just trying to get some looks at players,” Juneau manager Jeremy Ludeman said. “So there were a lot of moving parts while we were getting the looks that we needed to see. We are coming out, obviously, to put our best team forward but we are also getting opportunities for the guys, this is still development. These are non-conference games and it is an opportunity to prepare for our league games later in the week. Those ones count towards qualifying for state. So the games that we are really trying to prepare for are later this week.”

Rotating players in various positions through the tournament was not only looking for that starting combination but also finding the value of multiple starting positions and bench strength for various situations.

“It is not only defensively but also offensively,” Ludeman said. “The lineup. Putting people in different spots. Somebody who just has a different approach when they are in the top of the lineup but you move them down a little bit in the lineup and they start producing, and then they are comfortable. Just trying to move things around and get different looks on both sides, offense and defense. The process can go deep into the season.”