Mat-Su hurler throws one-hitter in Miner victory

June 14, 2005

JEREMIAH BARTZ/Frontiersman sports editor

PALMER - Last season Chris Malone, a product of San Joaquin Delta College in California, made his Mat-Su Miners debut against the Stockton Senators - a team made up primarily of San Joaquin Delta players.

Malone cruised by his former teammates, and led the Miners to a 7-2 win. That was just the start of a memorable summer for Malone, which included a perfect 6-0 record and no-hitter, and ended with the right-hander signing a contract to play professional baseball in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.

Sunday, Brett Bruneel had a Chris Malone-like start to his own Miner career.

Bruneel, another San Joaquin Delta product, allowed just one hit in eight shutout innings, and led the Miners (2-0) to a 1-0 win over Stockton. Bruneel took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, and struck out five in the win.

Josh McLaughlin, a College of Charleston sophomore, struck out the final three Stockton hitters to record the save.

Brian Boyd smacked a two-out double in the bottom of the fourth to score the lone run of the ballgame.

"We pushed one run across, and got enough to make a win out of it," Mat-Su manager Jimmy Smith said. "The way it was going, the game could have went all night."

Bruneel, who suited up for the Stockton team that fell to Malone and the Miners last season, had the upper hand in a duel of starting pitchers.

"It's nice to be on the winning end," Bruneel said.

Stockton starter Owen Simmons allowed just five hits and a run, before being removed with two outs in the eighth inning.

"The kid did a great job of keeping us off-balance, with off-speed-type pitching," Smith said. "Quiet bats, mixed with a good performance."

Sam Bruno erased Bruneel's no-hitter with a bloop single in the sixth inning. Bruno put the ball into a hole between centerfielder Steven Calicutt, and Nick Haley, who charged from his position at second base. Late in the inning, Bruneel walked Riley Gavelo and hit Chris Lester with a pitch to load the bases. With the bases jammed, Bruneel forced a pair of ground outs to get out of the inning.

Prior to that inning, Bruneel had allowed only two Stockton base runners to reach safely. John Percessi drew a walk in the third inning, and Lester reached on a Bruneel error in the fifth.

"That's the kind of pitching performance he's had all year," Smith said. "At his junior college he never had a lot of run support, so he's used to that.

"He throws strikes. He has a heavy baseball, so he's going to beat up a lot of bats."

Like Malone last season, Bruneel faced a Stockton squad made up primarily of San Joaquin players. Thirteen Senators played for San Joaquin, and Stockton even wears the San Joaquin "D" logo, on its batting helmets. Facing his former teammates was obviously on Bruneel's mind.

"I thought about it a lot. I actually couldn't sleep much last night," Bruneel said.

As well as teammates may know each other, Bruneel said in a situation like this, it is to the pitcher's advantage.

"I've seen how I can get them out, and I can go with that," Bruneel said. "They've seen me work, but haven't faced me."

Boyd gave Bruneel all the run support he would need with a run-scoring double in the fourth. With Matt Bransfield on first base, Boyd put a Simmons pitch into centerfield. Stockton centerfielder Chris Lester slid to make the catch, and in an Oscar-caliber performance, Lester raised the ball into the air, just as he had made the play. The umpire didn't fall for the Lester trickery, and Smith aggressively waved Bransfield around to home.

"Unless the umpire makes the call, we have to go like it's not a catch," Smith said.

Random hits … The teams combined for only six hits, but 10 players reached safely on either the walk or error. Stockton committed three errors, and Mat-Su was charged with two … Bransfield, a Notre Dame first baseman, made his Mat-Su debut … McLaughlin has now stuck out five consecutive hitters … Mat-Su will host a team from Taiwan in a two-game series, starting

Wednesday.