Dominant

PALMER — The Athletes in Action Fire had no answer for Garrett Richards on Friday.

The Mat-Su starter fanned seven hitters and pitched six innings of two-hit shutout baseball to lead the Miners to a 7-0 win over the Fire at Hermon Brothers Field.

“That’s as close to a Major League pitcher as you’re going to see (up here),” Mat-Su head coach Conor Bird said after the win.

Richards, armed with a brand new slider, consistantly befuddled AIA hitters, and cruised to his second victory in a week.

“I’ve picked up the slider in the last few days,” Richards, a Univerity of Oklahoma sophomore, said after improving to 2-1 on the summer.

Richards struggled early during his time with the Miners, but has been working closley with Mat-Su pitching coach Ryan Heil during his time in the Valley. And the reason for the difference, he said, is simple.

“It’s soley mechanics,” Richards said. “My mechanics when I first got up here to now are totally different. It makes pitching so much eaasier when everything moves really smooth.

“Coach Heil has been working with me on my mechanics. I really think that was the only thing holding me back.”

A few minor tweaks to his mechanics have done the trick for Richards, a pitcher who can hit the high 90s with his fastball. Bird, a pitching coach at the college level, believes the addition of the slider can push Richards over the top.

Richards sports a 97 mph fastball and has a good curve, and Bird said now he has a slider to finish off hitters.

“His curve ball is a good pitch, but that’s a (0 balls, 0 strikes) pitch,” Bird said. “But the slider’s a two-strike pitch.”

For a power pitcher such as Richards, Bird said a slider is easy to command.

Richards said the slider is a perfect fit for him.

“It compliments the fastball,” Richards said.

Richards, a closer with a team-high nine saves for the Sooners as a freshman, saw his earned run average rise to 6.97 as a sophomore middle reliever. In addition to improving his mechanics, Richards said he wanted to use his time in the Alaska Baseball League to get his confidence back.

“That’s exactly what I needed,” Richards said. “I had been beat up a little this spring. I just needed a couple of tweaks and to get my confidence back up.”

In his last two starts, Richards has pitched 12 innings, fanned 10 hitters and allowed only seven hits and one earned run.

With Richards dominating on the mound, Mat-Su first baseman Troy Scott sparked the Miners offense with two hits and three RBI.

Scott, a University of Washington freshman, used a bloop single to drive in Kyle Jensen and give the Miners the 1-0 lead in the third. In the fourth, Scott’s two-run double to right field gave the Miners the the 7-0 lead in the fourth.

Andrew Berger pitched a scoreless inning in the seventh to combine with Richards on the shutout.

Mat-Su and AIA opted to play a seven-inning game rather than the normal nine-inning affair because the two teams were also forced to continue a game that had been previously suspened earlier in the afternoon.

The teams’ Tuesday contest was suspended and postponed due to rain in the seventh inning with the tie scored at 2-2.

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