Service High baseball player Jake Rafferty shined with the bat and with his arm to earn our Alaska Athlete of the Week honors.
The senior pitched into the seventh inning and drove in two runs at the plate to help the Cougars beat Eagle River 5-1 to cap a 22-0-1 season and capture the school’s first prep state championship since 2001.
The right-hander scattered three hits and six walks and limited the Wolves to just one run in 6.2 innings. He struck out seven batters, giving him 62 for the season, and moved to 8-0 to equal the single-season wins record by a CIC pitcher set in 2022 by South’s Isaac Johnson.
Rafferty’s RBI double in the fourth inning made it 4-1 and his run-scoring single in the sixth gave his team a four-run cushion as he went 2-for-3 in the title game to raise his batting average to .303 in 23 games.
Days later, Rafferty was named MaxPreps Alaska Player of the Year.
Also receiving votes:
- Greg Fallon and Clare Mullen – The track standouts were named 2024 Brian Young Invitational male and female athletes of the week. Both runners claimed titles in each the 800-meter and 1600-meter events with historic times at the all-star event in Fairbanks.
- Rebecca McKee – Six months after a major surgery, the Anchorage triathlete won the 50-54 age group and was seventh among women at the Ironman 70.3 in Kohalo Coast, Hawaii.
- Alissa Pili – The WNBA rookie from Anchorage came off the bench to score a career-high 20 points for the Minnesota Lynx in a 95-71 victory over Phoenix. She made 7-of-9 field goals, including 4-of-4 from 3-point land.
- Catherine Rocchi – The Anchorage cyclist won two bike races in Anchorage in less than 72 hours. First she was the first female rider in the 23-mile Potter Rabbit Roubaix multi-surface route on Wednesday night then Ricchi, she took Saturday’s 40-mile Green Lake Grinder on JBER.
- Sela Rodriguez – The East High pitcher led the Thunderbird softball team to a state championship, capping a 24-2 season. She tallied 10 strikeouts in the title game against, allowing nine hits and giving up five walks to a game Chugiak squad.
- Josh Taylor and Shauna Severson – Taylor of Wasilla and Severson of Eagle River claimed victories in Government Peak Climb in Palmer on Saturday.
Have a candidate in mind? Email us your nomination: info@alaskasportshall.org
