Miners continue to win

PALMER — During a three-game sweep of Anchorage over the weekend, the Mat-Su Miners found about every possible way to beat the Pilots.

There was a lopsided victory on Friday and a shutout on Saturday. On Sunday, the Miners used a bit of late heroics to edge Anchorage.

Matt Wessinger reached on an error with two outs and pinch-runner Matt Applegate scored in the bottom of the ninth to give Mat-Su a 2-1 win over the Glacier Pilots at Hermon Brothers Field on Sunday.

With two outs and Applegate on third, Wessinger sharply hit a ball to the left side of the infield. Anchorage shortstop Adam Landecker couldn’t make the play, and Applegate scored.

“It was a tough play,” Mat-Su head coach Russell Raley said.

Despite hitting the ball that drove in the game-winning run, Wessinger didn’t receive an RBI on the play. Actually, it’s the second time this season the Miners have scored the game-winning run when Wessinger scored on an error.

Mat-Su edged the Anchorage Bucs 3-2 when Wessinger reached on a two-base error early in the season. Wessinger, who has to lead the team in the number of unorthodox ways to push across the game-winner, sent the winning run home in a 6-5 win over the Peninsula Oilers when he was plunked by a pitch with the bases loaded.

“He’s really kind of coming on. He’s really impressed me,” Raley said of the St. John’s product. “He could really be a great player in the Big East for a few years to come.”

Wessinger is also among team leaders with 11 RBI.

Wes Thigpen sparked the Miners in the ninth with the single. After Applegate entered the game as a pinch-runner, David Lyon moved him over to second with a sacrifice bunt. Applegate advanced to third on a Reagan Moczygemba ground out.

Mat-Su trailed 1-0, but tied the game in the seventh when Pablo Bermudez doubled and scored on a Lyon single. A key at-bat in the inning came when Thigpen singled on a 12-pitch at-bat.

James Allen earned the win on the mound after pitching three scoreless innings in relief. Scott Sitz was also stellar, allowing three hits and one earned runs as the Mat-Su starter

“The whole ball game was really well-pitched by both sides,” Raley said.

Anchorage starter Tom Harlan allowed six hits and one earned run during 6 1/3 inning.

Sitz’s lone mistake came in the fifth when Cullen Mahoney put a hanging change-up over the right field fence.

“Just one bad pitch,” Raley said. “He did an outstanding job.”

Mat-Su, which improved to 19-7 overall, returns to action Wednesday to host the Athletes in Action Fire at 6 p.m. at Hermon Brothers.

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