Miners belt 2 grand slams, blast Pilots

PALMER — Grand slams are typically rare. But for the Mat-Su Miners, celebrating a slam is becoming part of their routine.

Tuesday, Cameron Frost and Cameron Newell each belted a grand slam to lead the Miners to a 13-6 rout of the Anchorage Glacier Pilots at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

Tuesday’s work gives Mat-Su five grand slams this season. For Newell, it was his third of the summer and second in less than a week. Last Wednesday, Newell hit a walk-off grand slam to give the Miners a 5-3 win over Chugiak. Jonny Locher beat the Pilots with a walk-off grand slam early in the season.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Mat-Su head coach Ben Taylor said of his team’s five grand slams. “Maybe one a year. Maybe one every other year. But nothing like this.”

Frost used his first slam of the summer to help Mat-Su break the game open in the sixth inning. With the Miners holding a slim 4-3 lead, Hunter Simmons and Newell each drew walks. Locher was given a free pass, thanks to a catcher obstruction call, to load the bases. With two outs, Frost lifted a Cameron Pongs curveball high into the air. The Frost shot hit the top of the Hermon Brothers left center field wall, and bounced over to give the Miners to 8-3 lead.

“With the curve, I wasn’t 100 percent sure,” Frost said of whether he thought his hit would leave the park. “I saw it hit the top of the fence, and I was like, alright.”

With the grand slam, the Washington State product collected his 20th extra-base hit of the season. He now has 10 doubles, a league-high seven triples and three home runs.

“He’s been like that all year. Frost, he’s an anchor. He’s played almost every inning of every game,” Taylor said of Frost, who is now hitting .336.

Frost’s slam broke the game open, but Newell’s shot iced the win for the Miners.

In the eighth, walks by Jordan Rodgers and Paul Panaccione sandwiched a Simmons single. With the bases loaded, Newell worked the count. After fouling off multiple pitches, Newell blasted a shot deep over the right field wall and into the Alaska State Fairgrounds property that borders Hermon Brothers Field.

“Newell, he’s something else,” Frost said.

With another solid night (2 for 5, three runs and four RBIs), Newell continued his Alaska Baseball League triple crown pace. As of Tuesday night, Newell stood first in the league in batting average (.383) and RBIs (34) and second in home runs (seven).

Josh Meyer also had a big night for the Miners. The Mat-Su catcher entered the game with four RBIs on the season, but had three on Tuesday. He also tripled in the win.

“He’s been struggling a little bit, but he’s fine-tuned some things. He earned those knocks tonight,” Taylor said of Meyer.

Panaccione and Newell scored three runs each, and Simmons and Locher added two runs scored each.

The grand slams may have grabbed the bulk of the attention but Taylor also noted the work of Mat-Su starter Seve Romo.

Romo enjoyed his best start of the season, pitching seven strong innings for the Miners. Romo allowed eight hits and four earned runs, while fanning four.

“That was a really big start for us. He really stepped up,” Taylor said. “I’m proud of Seme. He was fantastic.”

With the win, Mat-Su improved to 16-9 in ABL play and took a four-game lead over the second-place Pilots (14-15) in the standings. The Miners also captured the season series with the win. Mat-Su was 6-4 against the Pilots in 10 league games.

“It’s the goal with every team we play. We want to win the season series. This was a hard-fought series,” Taylor said.

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