Alaska Baseball League: Miners split with Bucs

July 27, 2007

By Jeremiah Bartz/ Frontiersman

ANCHORAGE - A two-game midweek sweep over the Anchorage Bucs could have done wonders for the Mat-Su Miners hopes of leaping over AIA and re-claiming the top spot in the Alaska Baseball League.

But thanks to a win in a pitcher's duel on Wednesday, the Bucs were able to salvage the two-game split.

Four Anchorage pitchers combined to throw a one-hitter in the Bucs' 2-1 win over the Miners at Mulcahy Stadium.

The loss left the Miners (20-10) two games behind AIA in the standings, as of Thursday.

Anchorage starter Mitch Bialosky took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, but Joey August singled and scored in the seventh to allow the Miners to tie the game at 1-1.

August led off the inning, and later scored on one of Anchorage's five errors in the game.

After the Miners tied the score in the top of the seventh, Anchorage quickly took the lead again with a Tom Mendonca solo home run in the bottom of the inning.

Mat-Su starter Jason Erickson was tagged with the loss, despite throwing seven solid innings. Erickson fanned seven and did not walk a batter.

Erickson has been Mat-Su's hard luck starter this season.

Despite a 1.80 ERA and only five walks in 45 innings, Erickson is just 3-3.

Erickson also has a team-high 33 strikeouts

Miners 3, Bucs 3

The Mat-Su Miners kept within arm's reach of the AIA Fire and the ABL pennant, scoring a 6-3 win over the Anchorage Bucs at Mulcahy Stadium on Tuesday in Anchorage.

Mat-Su scored four runs in the fourth and starter Alex Rivers pitched seven innings to lead the Miners to their fifth win of the season over the Bucs.

Ryan Conan, Chris McMurray and Joe Ercolano each drove in runs during the fourth inning for Mat-Su.

Ercolano and Michael Ewing each collected two hits to lead the Miners.

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