Chinooks edge Miners at Hermon Brothers Field

After splitting their doubleheader against the Anchorage Glacier Pilots on Tuesday, the Mat-Su Miners were back in action at home against the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks for another wild Wednesday. With an opportunity to move up to second in the Alaska Baseball League standings, Mat-Su knew that the time was now to pounce.

But the Chinooks drifted away with a victory, edging the Miners 1-0 at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

Over the last few games, Mat-Su has leaned heavily on one special unit, their incredible pitching staff. On this night, the same was true for Mat-Su from start to finish. Starting the game for the Miners was Ben Detaeye, who was usually used as a reliever for the Iowa Hawkeyes during the 2024 season, but has been used as a starter for two separate games now for Mat-Su.

Of course, Chugiak had their own man to match in Frankie Gulko.

Gulko and Detaeye would go blow for blow in this game through the first few innings, backed up by the tremendous defenses on both sides as well.

The game was a stalemate with both sides refusing to give an inch through the first six innings. However, that is not to say that Mat-Su would find themselves very close to home plate on several occasions. The Miners came close to scoring in the third with two runners getting in scoring position in Drake Kerr and Chase Wilcox. However, Mat-Su was unable to cash the check thanks to a dramatic double play from the Chinooks.

Detaeye kept applying the pressure down the stretch and ended his day with five strikeouts and allowing zero runs to Chugiak. However, Mat-Su needed to make sure that they could keep up that same pace toward the bitter end, and thus they would bring in the phenom Jack Hostetler to attempt to maintain the goose egg on the board for Chugiak.

Hostetler started off strong in the sixth inning with two impressive strikeouts in the blink of an eye. As the game approached the seventh, it seemed as though it might stay at scoreless until sudden death, however in only a few plays, everything would change.

In the top of the seventh, Mat-Su would give up the first run of the game on back-to-back errors to allow RJ Rickabaugh to come in and give the Chinooks a 1-0 lead. As it turns out, that would be all that was needed for Chugiak on this night.

The Chinooks were able to lock down the Mat-Su offense despite every effort from Christian Perez, Kyle Mccausland, and Drake Kerr, the Miners were unable to overcome the late defense from Chugiak on their way to a 1-0 loss to the Chinooks.

It is the first time that the Miners have been shutout at home and it is their third loss at home on the year. Mat-Su is now fourth in the ABL standings.