Miners clinch home field advantage in first round of ABL postseason

PALMER — A big win on the road clinched home field advantage for the Mat-Su Miners during the first round of the Alaska Baseball League postseason.

Mat-Su clubbed the Chugiak Chinooks 14-2 during the ABL regular season finale Wednesday night at Lee Jordan Field in Chugiak.

“We’ve got a little momentum and we get to play at Hermon Brothers Field,” Mat-Su head coach Tyler LeBrun said by phone Wednesday evening.

The Miners improved to 26-18 with the win and left Mat-Su tied with the Anchorage Glacier Pilots in the standings. Mat-Su owns the tiebreaker over the Pilots and officially finishes second in the ABL, and Anchorage is third. The Miners won the season series, finishing 6-4 against the Pilots.

Mat-Su now hosts Anchorage in a best-of-3 series that starts Thursday at 6 p.m. at Hermon Brothers. Game 2 is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m. A third game, if necessary, would be Saturday at 6 p.m.

The Anchorage Bucs (29-14) finished first in the league and will host the fourth-place Peninsula Oilers (15-29) in a three-game set. The Bucs own home field advantage throughout the postseason.

LeBrun said the Mat-Su coaching staff approached Wednesday’s game with a strategy of not putting any additional pressure on the players.

“Playing at home would be great, but we’re already in the playoffs. Go out and do our thing,” LeBrun said.

It worked.

The Miners scored 14 runs on 19 hits, and owned a 13-0 lead at one point.

The Pilots ended their regular season on Monday. Thursday marks Mat-Su’s fifth game in as many days. But LeBrun said the Miners like where they’re at. He said he’d rather enter the playoffs with their four-game winning streak, rather than a string of days off. LeBrun said the number of Miners fans who make the trip to the Lee Jordan Field also helped spark the club.

“Huge shout-out to the crowd who showed up to support us. It helped the guys build off it,” LeBrun said.

Erik Webb led the Miners, finishing 4 for 4 at the plate, with four runs scored and two RBI. Sam Thompson was 3 for 2 with two RBi and a run. Justin Kirby collected two hits, two RBI and a run. Coby Boulware added three hits.

Former Wasilla High School standout Nolan Monaghan earned the win on the mound. The lefty scattered three hits and an earned run over five innings.

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