Complete game a nice swan song

PALMER — Brock Simon made his final appearance as a Mat-Su Miner Friday night, and the Santa Clara product figured out a great way to say farewell to his summer season.

Simon pitched a complete-game seven-hitter to lead the Miners to a 10-1 win over the Athletes in Action Fire at Hermon Brothers Field.

“We think he’s a quality arm and we wanted to get as much out of him as we can before he left,” Mat-Su head coach Brian Yocke said of Simon, who’s scheduled to leave for his home state of California on Monday. “We weren’t expecting nine innings.”

But Simon, who had pitched only nine total innings this summer heading into Friday’s contest, gave his team a nine-inning effort Friday night. He struck out four, walked only two and didn’t allow an earned run.

“He did a great job of getting ahead in the count,” Yocke said.

Simon also had plenty of offensive support.

The Miners roughed up AIA starter Taylor Aikenhead for eight hits and eight runs over five innings. Mat-Su finished with 14 hits in the game and drew seven walks.

Mat-Su carried a modest 2-0 lead through 5 ½ innings, but hammered AIA for six runs in the sixth. The Miners opened the inning with four straight hits, three for extra bases, and the first nine hitters of the inning reached base.

The Miners had seven hits in the sixth. Michael Gerlach was hit by a pitch and Ryan Ford drew a walk.

Cam Kneeland sparked the big inning with a double to left field and quickly scored on a Stephen Branca single. Wesley Jones tripled to right to score Branca. Adam Martin recorded an RBI double and scored on a Kevin Lum single.

Michael Suiter singled to right field to drive in two runs.

“We had an offensive explosion we haven’t seen in a while,” Yocke said.

Kneeland, Branca and Jones each had three hits in the game. Branca drove in three runs, while Jones and Suiter each added two RBI.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/matsu_sports.