Eight Miners named first-team All-ABL after record-breaking season; Mat-Su sweeps ABL's top awards

The Mat-Su Miners have added to their historic season with eight of their players being listed on the first-team all-Alaska Baseball League.

Mat-Su's Carter Geffre won player of the year for the Alaska Baseball League, and Ridge Erickson received the Top Prospect award for the player most likely to make it to the MLB. Flashy playmaking shortstop Greg Pierantoni received the league's Gold Glove award as the league's top defender, and Geffre also won the ABL Silver Slugger award as the league's top hitter.

Ty Lebrun also won Coach of the Year in his seventh year of coaching with the Mat-Su Miners. Lebrun has won the Alaska Baseball League regular season title three times, and will look ot win his first Top of the World title with the Miners as the head coach.

The full list of Miners All-League players includes: First Team: Carter Geffre, University of Iowa, Utility; Ridge Erickson, BYU, Catcher; Carter Eberhard, California Baptist, First Base; Greg Pierantoni, Pomona-Pitzer, Shortstop; Michael Malki, California Baptist, Starting Pitcher; Gavin Blachowicz, Nebraska, Starting Pitcher; Kade Arn, Bowling Green, Relief Pitcher; Garrett Baumann, Angelo State, Relief Pitcher; Second Team: Evan Bilter, Colorado School of Mines, Outfielder; Karson Grout, State College of Florida, Third Base

The Miners broke several records this year on the offensive side. They scored 203 runs in just 28 games (7.25 runs per game), the highest runs-per-game total in Miners history. It was the most runs scored since at least 2011, and only the second time they scored 200 or more runs in the last 10 seasons (in 2018, they scored 200 runs in 42 games).

“This could be the best offensive team we’ve ever put together in Palmer,” Miner’s general manager Pete Christopher said.

The offense finished with a team batting average of .300 and a team on-base percentage of .385. Both records for the Miners. The offense also had 61 fewer strikeouts than any other team in the ABL, and scored 35 more runs than the second-highest scoring team (Bucs with 168 runs).

The pitching staff had a lot of question marks in the first two weeks of the season, but the pitching was just as big a part of the record-breaking 14-game win streak as the offense was. The Miners' pitching staff led the league in earned run average and strikeouts.

Four Miners pitchers, starters Michael Malki and Gavin Blachowicz, and relievers Kade Arn and Garrett Baumann, made the first-team list. All four pitchers were amongst the top in consistency in the Alaska Baseball League, particularly Malki, who led the ABL in K’s by nearly double anyone else.

“We simplified a lot of things, and supported each other no matter what,” Nebraska righty Gavin Blachowicz said in an interview during a game.

“I was so excited to come up here and play. I love playing the game of baseball and being able to pitch a lot of innings and develop has been super beneficial to me.” California Baptist starter Michael Malki said.

The Miners went 22-6 in the Alaska Baseball League regular season, and 11 total players got recognized on the ABL All-League teams.

The Mat-Su Miners have won each of the top awards given out each summer for the Alaska Baseball League. The top five awards, the Silver Slugger, Gold Glove, Top Prospect, Coach of the Year, and Player of the Year, were all won by Miners.

Geffre won Player of the Year and the Silver Slugger for the Alaska Baseball League after hitting a slash line of .363/.508/.588 with three homers, tormenting every other pitching staff in the ABL. Geffre led the league in walks, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and was one of five players to record at least 10 extra-base hits.

Geffre and Erickson received the Top Prospect award for the player most likely to make it to the MLB. Erickson and Geffre received the same number of votes; therefore, both received the award. Erickson was debatably the best two-way player in Alaska this summer. He led the league in batting average at .367, led the Miners in total RBI with 21, and also led all ABL catchers in runners caught stealing with six. He also back-picked five other runners this season behind the dish, and had just three passed balls all summer.

Pierantoni received the league's Gold Glove award as the league's top defender after dazzling the voters all year with his off-balanced outs. Pierantoni was the only player who was close to receiving this award.

Lebrun won Coach of the Year and quickly gave his entire coaching staff the credit.

“This award goes out to the whole coaching staff. Without [pitching coach] Steve Hecker and [hitting coach] Jackson Jarvis, we wouldn't be here, so this award goes to all three of us,” Lebrun said in his acceptance speech.

The Miners can add to the historic season with a league title. Mat-Su hosts the Anchorage Bucs in the best-of-3 ABL Top of the World Series which starts Monday at 6 p.m. at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.