Playing the games on different days worked better for the teams, as the Eagle River team had nine players attend a collegiate coaches camp during the preceding week.

Head coach Gus Ortiz said his players were jazzed about the camp.

“I got some very positive feedback from them. They said that they learned some things that they would like to implement in practices,” he said.

The local coach also stated that his players found Outside college coaches to be quite personable.

Incoming Eagle River High senior Augie Ortiz was the only Wolves player selected to play in the camp’s All-Star Game with the Anchorage Bucs.

In his only plate appearance, Ortiz beat out an infield single, and later scored. He also played third base for two innings.

Despite polishing their individual skills during the coaches clinic, it did not alleviate the team’s propensity to make errors as the Wolves were rung up for nine errors in Friday’s 15-9 fall to East.

“There were a lot of inopportune errors,” lamented the coach.

Indeed the errors negated Eagle River’s nearly equal offensive output, as the team was only one hit short of East’s nine.

The team came into the game a little lackluster, said Ortiz.

East scored two runs in the first and third, sandwiching three in the second, for a 7-0 lead.

Eagle River chipped away at the deficit, scoring one run in the fifth, two in the sixth, then a five-spot in the seventh, to claw within a few rules.

“Hey, we took the game to nine innings,” said the coach, pleased with the moral victory given the team’s string of shortened games in recent weeks.

The Wolves are still reeling from injuries as well, due to the recent cracked clavicle of third baseman Jimmy Reves.

Without Reves, the team is running 10 players on the roster, leaving little margin for error or absence.

Ortiz said the two Grotelueschen boys, Paul and Andrew, both of whom sustained broken hands during the high school season, are expected to be back in another week or so.

Ortiz said the team’s pitching has also been a bit thin. The Grotelueschens will help in that regard as well.

In Saturday’s game, the Wolves led 4-3 after the first inning, nearly hitting the way through their nine-player batting order.

But East responded with an offensive output of its own, scoring seven runs in the top of the fourth to put the game away.

Eagle River plays Bartlett tonight and then hosts Kenai Saturday for a double-header at Loretta French Park.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, July 2, 2009.