Miners beat Chinooks, win ABL opener

PALMER — The Mat-Su Miners are showing some resiliency early in the 2017 season.

Mat-Su starter Andrew Nardi survived Chugiak-Eagle River’s four-run third, and the Miners scored seven unanswered runs during a 10-4 victory over the Chinooks Wednesday night at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

It’s the third time in as many nights that the Miners trailed within the first four innings before rallying for a victory.

“I think it says a lot about our battle,” Miners catcher Zack Sharpley said after the win. “We show a lot of energy throughout the game. No matter whether we’re down or up, we’re going to be fighting.”

Sharpley said it’s a great thing to see just days into the new season.

“It’s great to see how much we’ve congealed as a team,” Sharpley, a USC sophomore, said. “We’ve really come together.”

Mat-Su head coach Ben Taylor said it’s good his players are showing him that early in the year.

“It’s nice. You’ve got to find out who can answer what,” Taylor said. “I thought the guys did a really nice job.”

And once again, Taylor saw contributions throughout the lineup. Mat-Su used a dozen hits to win its official Alaska Baseball League season opener, and the Miners are now 3-0 overall after exhibition victories over the Anchorage Glacier Pilots on Monday and Tuesday.

“It’s one through nine,” Taylor said of the production in the lineup.

Seven different Miners had at least a hit, and five finished with two.

“I’m really happy with tonight. I thought we were swinging the bat really well,” Taylor said. “I thought we controlled the strike zone at the plate. We didn’t expand very much, and these guys are going line to line which is a lot of fun to watch.”

The Miners also coaxed eight walks in the game.

“We saw a lot of pitches tonight,” Taylor said. “We kept ourselves in hitters’ counts most of the night.”

Austin Dennis drove in four runs and Austin Bull scored four times to lead the Miners. Sharpley and Brandon Chinea added three runs each in the win. Preston Pavlica chipped in two RBI. Bull, Dennis, Sharpley, Chinea and Quinn Cotton collected two hits each.

Nardi allowed only three hits in seven innings of work. He fanned seven and walked three.

“I thought he was fantastic,” Taylor said. “He threw a ton of strikes. He fed the zone. When he was missing, he was missing around he zone.”

Chugiak did all of its damage in the third, scoring four times in the inning. All three walks Nardi issued came in the third, and the Miners also had two errors in the field.

“Nardi had good stuff, other than that one blemish in the (third),” Sharpley said. “His stuff was on point. It’s everything we expected him to be.”

After Chugiak took a 4-3 lead, Nardi fanned Luke Coffey to get out of the inning. That was the first of 10 straight Chinooks retired by Nardi.

“He settled right in,” Taylor said.

Mat-Su took the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Sharpley drew a lead off walk. Pavlica walked with the bases loaded to drive in Sharpley to tie the score at 4. Dennis fllowed with a two-run single to give Mat-Su the 6-4 lead.

In the fifth, with Pavlica at the plate again with the bases loaded, Pavlica was hit by a pitch to drive in another run. Dennis added an RBI single, and Sharpley doubled and scored on a wild pitch early in the inning.

The Miners will meet the Chinooks again Thursday at 7 p.m. at Lee Jordan Field in Chugiak, the home opener for the Chinooks. It’s the first of seven straight on the road. Mat-Su travels to Kenai for a six-game set against the Peninsula Oilers, which starts Friday at 7 p.m.

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