Bucs spoil opening day for the Miners

PALMER — Typically, the Mat-Su Miners have the chance to ease into the summer season.

But that’s not the case this year.

Before the Miners could shake off the rust, the Anchorage Bucs dealt Mat-Su an 8-5 loss, spoiling opening day for the Valley ball club, Wednesday at Hermon Brothers Field.

The Minors suffered the loss in front of 1,202 fans, the highest attendance recorded at Hermon Brothers Field in at least seven years.

Sparked by a four-run fifth, Anchorage scored six unanswered runs en route to the victory. Brian Bello tied the game at 5 and chased Mat-Su starter Danny Almonte off the mound with a three-run home run in the fifth to fuel the Bucs’ comeback.

“It was one of those deals, we had our chances no doubt, but we just couldn’t stabilize,” first-year Mat-Su head coach Russell Raley said after the loss.

Mat-Su scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth to take the 5-2 lead, but Anchorage had the answer.

“We put up a three-spot and you’d like to come back the next inning and put up a zero,” Raley said. “But that didn’t work out today for us.”

Almonte, who finished a perfect 9-0 during his sophomore season at Western Oklahoma Junior College, was dealt the loss after he was tagged for 10 hits and four earned runs during four innings of work.

“I think he was tired a little bit,” Raley said. “He might have had some nerves. He’s a long way from home.”

Almonte, a native of the Dominican Republic who played youth and high school baseball in Bronx, NY, left after Bello knocked a pitch over the left center field wall of Hermon Brothers.

“That kind of put the nail in the coffin for our starter,” Raley said.

Almonte also fanned two hitters and didn’t walk an opponent.

Centenary sophomore Justin Kraft and Harvard freshman Connor Hulse also saw action on the mound. Kraft worked 4 2/3 innings and struck out four.

“I thought Justin did a nice job of keeping us in it,” Raley said.

Third baseman Shane Brown, catcher Nick Croce and second baseman Jonathon Johnson each collected a pair of hits to lead the Miners the plate.

Croce, a redshirt freshman from Hawaii, tied the game at 1-1 with a run-scoring single and gave the Miners the 2-1 lead when he scored on an error in the second.

Croce and Brown each posted RBI doubles in the fourth.

“We hit the ball,” Brown said.

Mat-Su finished with nine hits in the game, but could have certainly collected a few more.

Brown was robbed of his third hit when Anchorage second baseman Tyler Sibley reached to snag a line drive out of the air during the seventh. That was merely one example of hard hits that became line-drive outs on the score sheet.

“We were hitting them right at people,” Brown said. “A bunch of line drives right at people. They’re going to fall eventually.”

While some players were fresh off trips to the college postseason, others had lengthy breaks between their college and summer seasons. Brown said everybody is working to make the transition.

“Seeing live pitching, getting back into that game mode,” the Central Florida junior said. “But everybody played hard.”

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