Bucs stun Miners in the ABL playoffs

The Mat-Su Miners 2021 summer season has come to an end.

The Anchorage Bucs used 11 unanswered runs to stun the Miners 13-3 during the Alaska Baseball League semifinals Sunday at Hermon Brothers Field. The Miners end their season 30-13.

Mat-Su took a 3-2 lead in the third, but Anchorage bounced back with five runs in the fifth. The Bucs padded their lead with a combined six runs during the final two innings,

Casey Rother and Nick Cirelli both scored on wild pitches in the third to tie the score at 2. Tyler Rando scored on an Aaron Walters single to give the Miners the 3-2 lead.

Mat-Su entered the postseason as the league champion during the regular season with a 29-11 mark. The Miners opened the best-of-3 semifinal series with a 5-4 walk-off win Friday. Anchorage followed with consecutive wins to clinch the series.

Anchorage 4, Mat-Su 1

The Anchorage Bucs have forced a decisive game in the Alaska Baseball League best-of-3 semifinal series. Anchorage used a three-run third to score a 4-1 win over the Mat-Su Miners Saturday evening at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

Four Anchorage pitchers combined to allow only two hits in the win. Starter Mitchell Scott survived seven walks to record the victory on the mound.

Miners shortstop David Bermudez collected both of Mat-Su’s hits. Nick Cirelli scored the lone run on a Ricky Nunez sacrifice fly.

Mat-Su 5, Anchorage 4

The Mat-Su Miners were one strike away from falling behind early in the postseason. But Tyler Wilson came through in the clutch for the Miners.

Facing two strikes and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Wilson, a Grand Canyon University product, punched a ball up the middle and drove in two runs to lead Mat-Su to a 5-4 walk-off win over the Anchorage Bucs during the first game of a best-of-3 Alaska Baseball League semifinal series Friday night at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

“Anything close, put it into play,” Wilson said of once he hit two strikes.

Patrick Donovan scored the game-tying run easily and Ricky Nunez beat a play at the plate to give the Miners the win. As Nunez slid through home, the dugout emptied and the Miners mobbed Wilson in the infield.

“It feels amazing to come through for the team like that in such a big situation,” Wilson said.

The Miners, who entered the ABL postseason as the top seed with a 29-6 regular season record, have had a knack for producing late-game heroics this summer. Mat-Su general manager Pete Christopher calls his group the “cardiac kids.”

“They’ve got a lot of fight in them. There’s no end to these guys,” Mat-Su head coach Tyler LeBrun said.

Mat-Su entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 4-2. Aaron Walters sparked the rally with a lead-off single. Donovan and Nunez followed with consecutive walks to load the bases. With Wilson at the plate, Walters scored on a wild pitch to cut Anchorage’s lead to 4-3. Wilson capped the game with the two-run single.

Evan Floyd pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings to earn the win on the mound in relief. Mat-Su starter Will Johnston was dominant, fanning 10 while walking only one during six innings of work. The only blemish was Diego Baqueiro’s shot that gave the Bucs a two-run lead in the top of the first.

The Miners bounced back quickly, with a two-run second. Donovan used a single to drive in Nick Cirelli and Casey Rother, and tie the game at 2.

Contact the Frontiersman at sports@frontiersman.com.