Miners beat Pride

PALMER — The Mat-Su Miners dispatched the Piedmont Pride by a 14-6 score in seven innings on Wednesday night at Hermon Brothers Field. The visiting Pride are a faith-based baseball club from Rock Hill, South Carolina that competes in the Summer Collegiate Baseball League in North Carolina. A total of six Miners knocked multiple hits and three Miners finished with multiple runs batted in.

The Mat-Su Miners are now 22-9 in Alaska Baseball League play in sole possession of first place. The Miners suffered their first loss in eight games earlier this week in seven innings against the Anchorage Bucs on Tuesday, but bounced back by walloping the Pride at Hermon Brothers. Piedmont led off the game by scoring two runs and carried that lead into the second inning as the Miners could only plate one during the bottom half of the first.

An offensive explosion began at the plate in the second inning for the Miners and continued until nearly every player had contributed. Lehigh University junior Gerard Sweeney doubled in Nick Cirelli to cap a five-run second inning for Mat-Su. The Miners then followed up their second inning performance with four more runs in the third, culminating in a Ricky Nunez double that scored Cirelli and Lehigh teammate Casey Rother.

Texas A&M freshman Wyatt Tucker gave up just three hits in his three innings of work against the Pride. Central Arizona Community College freshman Tyler Woessner pitched one inning and Evan Wolf closed the game with one inning on the mound. Career Tech High School grad and former Wasilla Road Warriors standout Austin Robertson threw two innings, giving up just two hits.

At the plate, Angelo State University junior Aaron Walters led Mat-Su with four runs batted in, and also had two hits. Holden Breeze, Tyler Wilson, Kevin Nakamura, Rother, Walters and Nunez all had two hits. Rother, Nunez and Wilson also each had two runs batted in.

The Miners will compete against the Bucs again on Thursday at Hermon Brothers Field before finishing out the week with two games against the Chugiak Chinooks at Loretta French. The Miners will finish the regular season schedule at home with two games against the Anchorage Glacier Pilots on Monday and Tuesday of next week.