Miners, Bucs to decide ABL regular season title Sunday in Palmer

PALMER — The Mat-Su Miners have only one game left in the regular season, and it’s against the hottest team in the Alaska Baseball League. The league-leading Miners host the Anchorage Bucs Sunday at 4 p.m. at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

And the game will decide the ABL regular-season title, and home-field advantage throughout the postseason. With an 8-4 win over Chugiak Saturday night, Anchorage improved to 25-18. Now the Bucs are only a game behind the league-leading Miners (26-17). Anchorage holds the lead in the regular-season series, which means it’s must-win for the Miners.

Following a 1-1 tie in an exhibition game against the Alaska Goldpanners Friday night, Mat-Su head coach Ben Taylor said the Miners are expecting a battle for the top seed in the postseason.

“The game of the year on the last day of the year,” Taylor said.

Both teams have already clinched playoff spots.

The Miners are looking to bounce back from a 12-0 loss to the Bucs Sunday night in Anchorage.

“Move on to the next day,” Taylor said.

The Miners played the Panners, a former ABL team on Friday, and the Anchorage Adult All-Stars men’s league baseball team on Saturday. Taylor said the focus was on each game, each night and then look foward the Bucs on Sunday.

“Great chance to see a couple of different clubs, get some at-bats and worry about Sunday, Sunday,” Taylor said.

Mat-Su and the Peninsula Oilers had been the top two teams in the ABL for a large chunk of the season, but the Bucs have jumped the Oilers in July. Anchorage is 10-1 in its last 11, with the lone loss in that stretch coming to the Miners.

“They’re fantastic,” Taylor said. “They’re well-coached. We’ve got a big game ahead of us. They are playing well. Pitching well, getting their hits when they need them. They’re just playing good baseball.”

The Miners and Bucs are, by a large margin, the top two teams in the league statistically.

Mat-Su is the top hitting team in the league, batting a combined .255. Anchorage is second at .233. The Miners also lead the league in runs (202), hits (351), doubles (76), home runs (14), RBI (178) and on-base percentage (.340).

The Bucs have a league-best 2.33 earned run average, with the Miners following at 2.96. No other team is better than 3.33. The Miners lead the league in strikeouts (342) and saves (13).

The ABL playoffs start Wednesday, with a four-team first round. The top squad hosts the No. 4 seed and the second seed hosts the third seed in a best-of-3 series. The winners of each advance to the best-of-3 ABL Top of the World Series, which starts Aug. 4. The higher seed hosts each series.

Contact Frontiersman editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.