Bats cold as Miners fall to Oilers

PALMER — Miners head coach Conor Bird isn't worried about his team's slow start at the plate, despite watching Mat-Su pick up just three hits in Friday evening's 2-0 Alaska Baseball League loss to the Peninsula Oilers at Hermon Brothers Field.

“I just think there's a little bit of an adjustment period,” Bird said following the loss.

The Miners are hitting .210 as a team this season, and managed just 13 hits in 27 innings against the Oilers. Bird said he thinks his hitters are still getting used to swinging the ABL's wooden bats, which are heavier and have less pop than the aluminum bats used at the college level. But with just seven games under their belt, Bird said he thinks the Miners will eventually come around.

“We have some guys on this team who can swing the bat,” he said.

The sluggish hitting has been masked during the team's 6-1 start by the team's pitching staff. As has become the Miners' custom in the early going, Mat-Su got another strong pitching and defensive performance in Friday's loss, but couldn't do much of anything at the plate, as no Mat-Su baserunner advanced past second base. Infielder Blake Newalu's double in the third inning was the team's only extra-base hit.

In his first outing of the season last week, Miners starter Jeremy Erben took a no-hitter into the ninth inning, finishing with a complete-game, one-hit shutout. But any thoughts of another no-hit bid ended quickly Friday night, as Oilers leadoff hitter Ryan McCurdy singled to start the game. Erben settled down after that, inducing routine ground balls from the next three Peninsula hitters.

Erben got some help from his defense in the third inning, when second baseman John Shaffer made an unbelievable play behind second base. In one slick motion, Shaffer made a backhanded grab of Anthony Aliotti's slow ground ball up the middle, then quickly spun and fired the ball from deep in the hole to get Aliotti by a half-step at first.

The Oilers finally got to Erben in the top of the fifth, picking up an RBI triple by Trey Dennis after Will Currier reached on an error by third baseman Jordin Hood. Dennis then came in to score on McCurdy's third single of the game, staking the Oilers to a 2-0 lead.

“If you make an error or walk a guy, you're giving the other team another opportunity to hit, and that's what happened,” Bird said.

Mat-Su got back-to-back one-out singles from Steve Domecus and Troy Scott in the bottom of the fifth, but Oilers starter Joe Gardner ended the thread by getting D.J. Gentile and Blake Newalu to fly out.

The Miners also got two runners on with one out in the sixth, but once again Gardner was able to bear down and retire the side with no damage done, getting a nice running catch by right fielder Jeremy Gould on a slicing line drive by Wes Dorrell to end the threat.

Blake Newalu and Ty Rasmusson each turned in defensive gems in the top of the eighth, with Rasmusson sliding in the outfield to take a hit away from Francis Larson and Newalu leaping to grab Belnome line drive with the bases loaded.

But the Miners couldn't scratch any runs across as Seth Harvey pitched a perfect ninth to notch the save.

Mat-Su fell to 2-1 in the ABL with the loss and 6-1 overall. The Oilers improved to 1-1 in the ABL and 10-1 overall.

Despite his team's early offensive woes, Bird said he's pleased with the Miners' 6-1 start.

“That's not a bad place to start.”

The Miners have an off day Saturday. They travel to Anchorage Sunday to face the Glacier Pilots at 2 p.m., then return to the Valley for a 7 p.m. showdown with the Anchorage Bucs on Monday.