Hot Bats in Game 1 and shut-down pitching in Game 2 propel the Miners to a pair of 4th of July wins

KENAI — At long last, baseball was played on the peninsula.

After wash outs on both Sunday and Monday, Mat-Su and Peninsula tangoed on Independence Day for a doubleheader. The Miners took both games and improved to 11-9, the official halfway point of the regular season.

Here’s how it went down in each game.

Game 1

Mat-Su wasted no time. Leadoff man Nolan Tucker blasted a triple to the right-center gap. Then first baseman Cooper Vest belted a single to right that scored Tucker. The next batter, outfielder Alex Vergara, smashed a double to the left-center gap. Catcher Steven Lancia walked to load the bases. Maddox Haley hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. Right fielder Kaden Carpenter then lined a single to right, very reminiscent of Vest’s single to score the third run.

“I thought we swung it really well, took some really good at-bats,” Head Coach Ty LeBrun said.

Lancia went 3-for-3 with two doubles and a triple in the game. The triple came to lead off the 3rd inning, a flare to the right-center gap. Maddox Haley shot a single up the middle to score the catcher on the very next at-bat. Three hitters later, shortstop Emilio Barreras lined a single on the first pitch he saw to left-center. After getting into scoring position, third baseman Kaleb Hannahs brought him home a single.

Cal Baptist righty Brandon Downer made his first official appearance in the ABL, throwing three solid innings. He gave up one run, but it was unearned because of a throwing error.

Vinny Bianchi took things from there, tossing four innings of relief, allowing just one run. The soon-to-be Notre Dame academic will depart the team on July 10th to begin his graduate program in South Bend, Indiana.

Game 2

Texas pitcher Ace Whitehead pitched a gem. The southpaw went six scoreless innings, giving up just two hits and striking out eight Oilers batters. He was just mowing down hitters one after another. At one point during his outing, he retired 11 consecutive batters.

Six of his eight punchouts were from the looking variety. What was even more impressive is that he got Peninsula’s best hitter, center fielder Nick Costello, to strike out each of his three plate appearances. Costello entered Game 2 batting .433 on the season (13 hits in 30 at-bats before facing Whitehead.)

Murray State’s Preston Chaudin closed the door in the 7th. He struck out two batters in the final frame. Of note, Vergara caught the final out in both games in left field.

For the Mat-Su bats, it was all about the 4th inning. The Miners scored all six of the game’s runs in that frame and batted around.

The inning began with a single from Vergara. Then Lancia walked, but right before he did he pelted a line drive down the left field line that appeared to be a fair ball but the home plate umpire called it foul.

Maddox Haley reached on an error by third baseman Theo Forshey to load the bases. Carpenter earned a walk to plate Vergara. Then Barreras had an infield single RBI.

After a pitching change (Aidan Gonzalez in for Evan Langer), the Miners continued to string together base runners. Sebastian Tomerlin, who was the only change in the order from game one to game two, laced a single over the Oilers shortstop that scored a run. Kaleb Hannahs did the same thing a couple of minutes later, but two runners crossed home plate on his hit.

Two batters later, Vest had an RBI single up the middle. It was another beautiful inning of hitting for Mat-Su.

The two wins helped the Miners jump the Pilots to 2nd in the ABL standings. After the holiday, the green and gold were just two games back of the Bucs for 1st.