Miners club California

PALMER -- Chris Malone pitched six scoreless innings to lead the Mat-Su Miners to a 7-1 win over the California Dons, Thursday at Hermon Brothers Field.

Malone struck out six opponents and allowed just three hits en route to earning his second win of the summer. The San Jauqin Delta College product now sports an 0.82 ERA.

In just his second game in a Miner uniform, John Hester led the Miners with a pair of hits and two runs driven in at the plate. Hester, a University of Stanford catcher, singled in Brett Bigler in the first inning and Matt Weston in the third.

Josh Satin, who also notched two hits for the Miners, singled and stole home early in the third to give Mat-Su a 2-0 lead, and Hester drove in Weston, giving the Miners the three-run advantage.

Mat-Su tacked on three runs in the eighth inning on a Western RBI single and a two-run Clayton Carson single.

The Miners improved to 4-2 with the win. The squad begins its Alaska Baseball League schedule today, hosting the Anchorage Glacier Pilots at 2 p.m.

Miner memos … A trio of Mat-Su players from the 2003 squad were drafted in the June Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. After a season with the University of Arizona, Koley Koleberg was drafted by the Arizona Dimondbacks in the seventh round. The Milwaeeke Brewers drafted UCLA relief pitcher David Johnson and the Philadelphia Phillies drafted and have signed University of New Mexico shortstop Josh Mader … Two players on the 2004 squad were also drafted. The NewYork Yankees selected starting pitcher Ryan Tabor in the 24th round and the Phillies selected Oregon State pitcher Andy Baldwin … Jed Lowrie, a member of the 2003 squad, was named a Louisville Slugger All-American and the PAC-10 player of the year last month.