Miners drill Oilers

PALMER — Heading into Tuesday night, no team in the Alaska Baseball League had scored 12 or more runs in a single game this season.

Tuesday, the Mat-Su Miners did that in the first inning alone.

Mat-Su scored a dozen in the first and drilled the Peninsula Oilers 17-1 at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

The lopsided win came in a battle for the top spot in the ABL. Mat-Su entered the game a half-game behind the Oilers. Now, the Miners (11-7) are a half-game ahead of the Oilers (11-8). Both teams are also streaking, but in different directions. Mat-Su has won four straight, while the Oilers have lost four consecutive games.

Mat-Su leadoff man Kona Quiggle was 2 for 2 with a single, a grand slam, two runs scored and four RBI in the first inning. Quiggle hit one of three Miners homers in the first. Austin Pinorini and Caleb Van Blake also went deep. In all, 15 batters stepped up to the plate. The Miners had nine hits in the first, three walks and one player reached on an error.

Tuesday’s marked the most runs scored by the Miners in a game since Mat-Su blasted the Anchorage Bucs 20-5 July 26, 2016.

Quiggle and Pinorini led the Miners with four RBI each. Drew Swift drove in three runs. Quiggle and Van Blake scored a game-high three runs each. Pinorini and Henson led Mat-Su with three hits each. Nine Miners had at least one hit, and nine also scored at least one run.

Asa Lacey breezed to the win on the mound, scattering three hits and one run over six innings. The Texas A&M product fanned 11 Oilers and didn’t walk a batter. Jake Terry, Kyle King and Jacob Butcher combined for three innings of scoreless relief.

Mat-Su now hits the road to face the Anchorage Bucs Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage. The Miners return home to host the Oilers again Thursday at 7 p.m. at Hermon Brothers.

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