Early deficits haunt Miners

PALMER — The first inning hasn’t been friendly to the Mat-Su Miners.

Since sweeping a doubleheader against the Chugiak Chinooks last Friday, the Miners have dropped three straight, and each of those losses have something in common.

Each time Mat-Su’s opponent has scored in the first inning to build an early lead.

Monday, Chugiak plated a pair of first-inning runs and held on for a 6-4 Alaska Baseball League win over the Miners at Hermon Brothers Field.

“We’ve got to put up zeros early to give ourselves a chance,” Miners skipper Chris Gordon said after a 6-3 loss to the Peninsula Oilers on Sunday, another game in which early runs haunted the Valley team.

Chugiak tagged Mat-Su starter Aaron Gilbreath for three hits and two unearned runs early. The Dallas Baptist hurler lasted just 1 1/3 innings, and was the first of six Miners pitchers to hit the mound on Monday. Aaron Luchterhand and Tyler Davis each worked a team-high 2 1/3 innings against the Chinooks.

The Miners’ six-pack of pitchers combined to scatter 11 hits, but walked only one Chugiak hitter. The Miners also fanned 13 Chinooks in the game.

Mat-Su continued to put runners on base in the loss. The Miners finished with a dozen hits and have 22 hits in the last two games. Mat-Su drew six walks and three reached via Chugiak errors, giving the Miners 21 baserunners in the game.

Mat-Su put the leadoff runner on in each of the last four innings and had two runners on with no outs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. But the Miners were only able to plate one runner during that stretch.

In the seventh, Brenden Berry reached on an error and Clint Freeman followed with a single for Mat-Su. Chugiak got its first out with a Mat-Su fielder’s choice and got out of the seventh with an inning-ending double play.

In the eighth, Tino Lipson led off and reached on an error for the Miners. Nash Knight drew a walk to put two runners on.

But once again, Chugiak escaped untouched. The Chinooks caught two Miners runners off the bag for two outs, and struck out another hitter.

In the ninth, The Miners put three straight on to load the bases with no outs.

Chris Taladay drew a lead-off walk, and Berry and Freeman posted consecutive singles to load the bases. Chugiak got out of the inning with three straight outs. P.J. Torres did drive in Taladay with a long fly out to right field, but that represented the lone run as the Miners tried to rally.

Berry and Bobby Boyd each finished with three hits in the loss. Bill Cullen had two hits, including a solo home run.

Cullen’s dinger to right field cut Chugiak’s 2-0 lead in half during the second inning, and Freeman tied the score for the Miners when he reached on an error and scored during the third.

Chugiak took a 3-2 lead in the fourth, but Mat-Su tied the score again in the bottom of the frame. Boyd doubled, and then used his blazing speed to score from second on Taladay’s soft ground out to the right side of the infield.

On Sunday, the Oilers built an early 3-0 lead and held on for a 6-3 win over the Miners. Two-out solo home runs by Alex Staehely and Jimmie Koch in each of the first two innings sparked the Oilers.

Erik Harbutz homered for the Miners late in the game.

Mat-Su collected 10 hits in the loss, including two each by Lipson and Ian Miller. Jake Watts started and was dealt the loss for the Mat-Su. Andrew McGee, in certainly his strongest outing of the year, fanned six Oilers during 4 1/3 innings of relief.

The games are at the front-end of a five-day, six-game homestand that continues today. The Miners host the Alaska Goldpanners today at 7 p.m. at Hermon Brothers. The series against the Fairbanks team continues July 4 with a doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m. and concludes Thursday at 7 p.m.

Mat-Su dropped to a league-worst 5-13 with the loss Monday.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com, follow him at twitter.com/matsu_sports and find him by searching Valley Sports Huddle on Facebook.