Early runs lift Miners past Pilots

PALMER — The Mat-Su bats came through in the second, and starter R.L. Eisenbach and the Miners pitching staff took care of everything else.

Mat-Su scored all five of its runs in the second, Eisenbach pitched six scoreless innings and the Miners posted a 5-2 win over the Anchorage Glacier Pilots at Hermon Brothers Field on Tuesday.

Six consecutive hits with two outs led to the Miners’ five-run second.

After a Nick Cox single was sandwiched by a pair of outs, Nick Croce, Jonathon Johnson, James Ramsey, Scott Arthur and Shane Brown each notched consecutive singles. Jonathon Cisneros followed that stretch with a run-scoring double.

“Hit are contagious,” said Croce, who gave the Miners a 1-0 lead when Cox scored on his RBI single. “Once the floodgates are open, it’s hard to get them closed again.”

Croce sparked the Miners with the single to left center field that scored Cox. Johnson followed with a single to center. Ramsey singled to right to score Croce, and Arthur popped another ball into right to push Johnson across the plate.

Brown’s run-scoring single to center gave the Miners the 4-0 and Cisneros capped the scoring with a double down the right field line that scored Arthur.

“We did all that with two outs. That’s huge,” Mat-Su head coach Russell Raley said. “They just kept up there and battling, and getting it to the next guy.”

Cisneros led the Miners with two hits in the game.

Eisenbach, a Lubbock Christian University standout, allowed only five hits while striking out seven during five innings of work.

“He looked good,” Raley said of Eisenbach. “If you’re getting a strikeout an inning, you’re going to do pretty good.”

Eisenbach didn’t walk a batter or allow an extra base hit during the win.

“He did exactly what we needed him to do,” Croce said. “He threw strikes. He kept the ball down.”

Estevan Uriegas, Owen Dew and Ryan Cole each saw time in relief. Anchorage did load the bases in the top of the ninth before Cole was able to force the final out to earn the save.

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