BURNING THE FIRE

PALMER — The Mat-Su Miners entered Wednesday’s contest against Athletes in Action with a perfect 6-0 mark against the Fire.

But that doesn’t mean a seventh victory over AIA was going to be easy.

Mat-Su erased an early 5-0 deficit and scored a 7-6 come-from-behind victory over the Fire at Hermon Brothers Field.

“Every game is big in this league,” said Mat-Su designated hitter James Ramsey, who used an eighth-inning double to drive in the go-ahead run. “We’re trying to maintain first place.”

Mat-Su (17-7 overall and 15-7 in Alaska Baseball League play) pushed its league lead to two games with the win. And with an off-day on Thursday, the victory also guaranteed the Miners will still be in first when the Miners host Peninsula tonight at 7 p.m. at Hermon Brothers Field.

With the scored tied at 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth, center fielder Nick Cox scored from first when Ramsey put an AIA pitch into the right center field gap.

“I got a pretty good swing on it. It’s better than walking. I’ve been doing a lot of walking lately,” said Ramsey, who leads the Miners with 20 base on balls.

Ramsey, who also scored a run in the win, pushed his team-leading batting average to .371 in the win.

“He’s the best player in the league, and if not, he’s right up there,” Mat-Su head coach Russell Raley said of Ramsey. “We feel like he’s out best hitter. We put him in the three-hole. He’s there to drive the ball, and he does it in the biggest situations.”

And while Ramsey supplied the work at the plate, Cox burned AIA with his speed, scoring from first on the play.

“Speed kills,” Raley said.

While Ramsey drove in the game-winning run, Mat-Su catcher Bobby Jacobs used a two-run single in the seventh to give the Miners their first lead of the game.

With the Miners down 5-4, Jacobs blooped a ball into short center field to score Ramsey and Scott Arthur.

Arthur, Mat-Su’s right fielder, easily scored on the play, and Ramsey took advantage of a slow relay throw to cross the plate.

“Bobby’s getting more comfortable in there,” Raley said of Jacobs, who was added in late June to fill a void at catcher on the Mat-Su roster.

Cox, Arthur and third baseman Shane Brown led the Miners with two hits each in the win. Cox and Jacobs both drove in a pair of runs.

After falling behind 5-0 early, newcomer Trevor Costin doubled and scored on a Cox ground out to put the Miners on the board in the third.

Mat-Su chipped away at the AIA advantage with three runs in the fourth.

Brown singled and scored on a Chad Marshall hit to spark the Miners early in the inning. David Alleman followed with an RBI on a sacrifice fly, and Cox drew a walk with the bases loaded to slice AIA’s lead to 5-4.

Four Mat-Su relievers combined to allow four hits and no runs during five innings of work. Estevan Uriegas needed only two-thirds of an inning to earn the win, while Jeremy Atkins pitched a perfect ninth to earn his fourth save of the year.

AIA tagged Mat-Su starter David Stilley for eight hits and five earned runs during the first four innings.

The Fire reached base twice in the first inning via the bunt. Ryan Gebhart and Ryan Enos each bunted safely on consecutive at-bats en route to a three-run first inning.

“They were giving us outs with the bunts, but we weren’t taking the outs,” Raley said. “It was a good game plan.”

The Miners improved to 7-0 against the Fire this season. Mat-Su will host AIA again on July 22.

“We’ve got seven straight against these guys,” Ramsey said. “That’s hard to do.”

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.