Bucs take early lead in ABL championship series

PALMER — The Mat-Su Miners have swept three straight doubleheaders at Hermon Brothers Field. The Miners need to make it four to give themselves the chance to celebrate another Alaska Baseball League title.

The Anchorage Bucs used a 4-0 victory Friday night to take an early lead in the best-of-3 ABL Top of the World Series championship set.

“We know how to play doubleheaders at home. We’ve just got to take care of business and go from there,” Mat-Su head coach Ben Taylor said after the loss. “We talk about winning series all summer long. You’ve got to win two out of three games. We’ve got to win Game 2 tomorrow to push it to a third.”

Game 2 is slated for Saturday at 2 p.m. at Hermon Brothers Field. The Bucs are the home team on the scoreboard. A third game, if necessary, will follow.

Taylor said the message to his players is simple.

“They’ve just got to go out and play baseball tomorrow,” Taylor said.

Anchorage used four runs off nine hits to take the early lead against Mat-Su, the defending league champion. The Miners finished with seven hits, but couldn’t plate a run.

“For me, I think we had some hard luck,” Taylor said. “I think we had 17 baseballs that were hit hard tonight. The ball was run down, or the play was made. It is what it is.”

Fourteen of Mat-Su’s 27 outs at the plate were long fly balls, including a handful at or near the wall. First baseman Nick Brooks hit a ball into deep center field that was chased down. With a runner on in the ninth, designated hitter Andy Thomas knocked a ball deep to the right field corner that was also chased down.

“Maybe tomorrow one of those hits the wall, one of those goes out. It’s a game of bounces, game of inches. There’s no clearer showing than tonight’s ball game,” Taylor said.

Mat-Su starter Calvin LeBrun worked seven innings for the Miners, allowing nine hits and three earned runs. He fanned three and his only walk was intentional.

“I thought he was gutsy, gutsy to get us though seven,” Taylor said of LeBrun. “It put us in a good position. We were full-staffed tomorrow.”

Anchorage jumped to an early lead. Michael Fuchs, who finished 3 of 5 at the plate, scored on a Mat-Su error in the second to give the Bucs the 1-0 lead. The Bucs added three runs in the sixth. Fuchs scored his second run of the game on a Cole Kleszcz sacrifice fly. Jace VanDeBrake followed with a two-run single to add to his team’s lead.

Anchorage starter Jared Morton pitched eight scoreless to earn the win on the mound.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.