Hamming the ball: Mat-Su the top hitting team in the NBC World Series

By JEREMIAH BARTZ/Sports editor

WICHITA -- Stellar pitching led the Mat-Su Miners to an Alaska Baseball League championship, but the Miners' play at the plate is the reason why Mat-Su is now one of the top three teams in the nation.

Mat-Su stands at 6-1 going into the semifinal round of the National Baseball Congress World Series. In those seven games the Miners are hitting a tournament-best .382 as a team. Mat-Su also leads the 46-team tourney in hits, doubles and runs.

Mat-Su designated hitter Scott Simon is one reason why the Miners lead in several statistical categories. The University of Northern Illinois product is leading all players in the tourney with a .581 batting average. Simon also has posted a tourney-best 18 hits and 8 RBI. Simon said a difference in the quality of pitching is not necessarily why he and the Miners are having success at the plate.

"We're all playing pretty loose," Simon said. "We're playing on astro turf, so the balls are finding holes."

Simon said the Miners faced pitchers in the early rounds who were not quite as strong, but as the team traveled deep into the event, all of the opposition had quality hurlers to put on the mound.

Simon is not the only Miner hammering the ball. The top three leaders in hits in the World Series each don a Miner uniform. Brett Bigler's 12 hits stand second only to Simon and Nick Kliebert and Clayton Carson are each tied for third with 11 hits.

Currently there is not a week link the Miner offensive lineup. Every starter is hitting over .300, and the Miners have six regulars hitting .360 or better.

The Miners have scored 52 runs in seven games, averaging 7.4 runs per outing. Mat-Su scored 54 runs in the last 13 games of the regular season and averaged just over five runs per game during the summer.

And even if the Mat-Su hitting slows down, the Miners always have their strength to fall back on -- pitching. Mat-Su is ranked 10th of the 46 teams with a 2.59 team ERA. Mat-Su has also struck out 52 hitters, ranking them second in the tourney.