The baseball field at Wasilla High School isn’t exactly known as ‘The Launching Pad.’ It’s 325 feet to the foul poles and 400 feet to center field. Those are pro-sized dimensions, so a teenager must really get a hold of one to get it out. There are no cheapies, especially in the crisp April air.

It’s hardly the ideal park for a historic home run streak, but that’s where Service High slugger Jake Rafferty went on a tear last week at the Buddy Dale Invitational in Wasilla.

Rafferty won tournament MVP honors after batting .538 on 7-for-13 hitting with three home runs and seven RBIs in four games. All of his home runs came in the first three games, a round-tripper’s three-peat that had never been accomplished by a player from the Cook Inlet Conference.

“I was seeing the ball pretty good,” Rafferty said with a laugh. “I had been struggling the first three games and I think it was a lack of confidence. Just knowing the work I had put in this offseason and what I can do, having that confidence back really put me in a nice little run right now.”

The CIC has had two players hit three home runs in a single game, but the Anchorage league that dates back to 1992 never had a kid homer in three straight games before Rafferty.

The right-handed first baseman hit solo homers against Sitka and Colony before he drilled a three-run shot against Wasilla to make history and pull within one of equaling the league’s home run record shared by four players that hasn’t been touched in a quarter of a century.

CIC HR RECORD

HR	PLAYER	YEAR
4	Tyler Hasbrouck SER	1998
4	Jarred Lewis, EAST	1999
4	JT Deep BAR	2000
4	Brian Montalbo DIM	2000

In the title game against Eagle River, Rafferty singled and drew three walks. He didn’t go out of his way to keep the streak going by swinging at pitches out of the strike zone, which showcased plate discipline and a team-first mentality.

“I think at times I could swing for the fences but that’s not really what I should be doing,” Rafferty said. “I try to make good contact and let the ball do its thing. It puts me in a better position to hit home runs.”

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Rafferty hit six home runs in last summer’s American Legion season to lead the state, so this power surge didn’t come out of left field. This big kid goes big fly in big yards like Mulcahy Stadium and Wasilla High School.

Last week, he crushed an opposite-field homer to right field in the first game. He pulled a shot down the left-field line in the second game and launched a nuke that cleared the scoreboard in left field in the third game in an awesome display of power.

“Obviously, it was a great weekend, but I put in a lot of work and these are the results that were bound to come with the work,” said Rafferty, who has signed with Tacoma Community College.

Rafferty bats leadoff for the top-ranked Cougars (7-0), hitting ahead of reigning Gatorade Alaska Player of the Year Coen Niclai, a catcher headed to the University of Oregon.

Coen’s little brother Rilen tore the cover off the ball at the Buddy Dale Invitational as the underclassman went 8-for-16 with a team-high nine RBIs.

“Rilen is a great player who puts in a lot of work,” Rafferty said. “I’ve been friends with Rilen for as long as I can remember. It’s really cool to see him succeed like that as a sophomore. It’s really cool.”

Rafferty and Niclai bros represent a modern-day murderer’s row.

Rafferty’s on-base percentage hovers around .500 in his last 100 high school and Legion games as he’s built a reputation as a guy who works the count. His job as a leadoff hitter is to set the table but sometimes, he clears it, too.

“Staying with my approach is going to allow me to hit more home runs, honestly,” Rafferty said. “Just waiting for a good pitch to hit instead of being overly aggressive and trying to hit home runs. Being a balanced hitter, that’s what the team needs out of me.”