FREE BASES: Miners have found a variety of ways to get on base in 2017

PALMER — With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning Thursday, the Mat-Su Miners drew consecutive walks before back-to-back Mat-Su hitters were hit by a pitch.

It’s not the most conventional way to push a runner across the plate, but was enough to give the Miners a victory. Catcher Ryan Haug wore a pitch to load the bases and infielder Austin Bull was hit by another Chugiak-Eagle River offering to score the go-ahead run, giving the Miners a 7-6 walk-off victory over the Chinooks.

It’s not the first time a Mat-Su hitter drove in the go-ahead run against Chugiak by getting hit by a pitch. In a 4-1 win over the Chinooks on June 21, Mat-Su’s Elijah MacNamee was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to give the Miners the game-winning run in the 10th.

The Miners are the Alaska Baseball League’s top team at the plate, leading the five-team league with a .268 team batting average. The Miners have a league-high 261 hits, nearly 50 more than any other team in the ABL. But the Miners have also shown, they’re willing to use a variety of ways to get on base.

“It doesn’t matter how you get on,” Mat-Su head coach Ben Taylor said.

The Miners have now been hit by a pitch 32 times this season, nine more than any other team this year.

“We get pitched inside a lot to begin with,” Taylor said. “We’re a power team. We’ve got some physical guys. (Other pitchers) don’t want guys to get their hands extended. They’re going to get the ball in more, and we’re going to get hit more.

“These guys want to win, get guys on base. Sometimes you’ve got to wear a pitch.”

Haug, a University of Arizona product, has been hit by a pitch a league-high seven times this summer.

“Hauger does a pretty good job. They try to bust him in a lot,” Taylor said.

Haug was also hit by a pitch a team-high 11 times during his junior season at Arizona.

The Miners are also not afraid to take a free base by drawing a walk. Mat-Su hitters have been walked a league-best 133 times this summer, about 20 better than the next best squad.

Taylor said, during the recruiting process, the Miners don’t necessarily look specifically for players who take a lot of walks, or get hit by a pitch at a higher rate.

“Things translate a little different from the college season to up here,” Taylor said.

But the Miners have success in those categories in recent years. Mat-Su led the ABL in on-base percentage in 2015 and 2016.

“We preach control the zone and not to chase, for the most part,” Taylor said. “Putting good at-bats together.”

As of July 7, Miners lead the ABL in several offensive statistical categories. Outfielder Quinn Cotton leads the league with a .383 batting average, eight doubles and 36 hits. Infielder Blake Benefield continues to be the top run-producer in the league, with an ABL-best six home runs and 29 RBI.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com