Miners drop 2 to end homestand, rebound with win at Chugiak

PALMER — Seven days after briefly holding a spot at first place in the Alaska Baseball League Standings, a pair of losses July 4 and 5 capped a rollercoaster week for the Mat-Su Miners, who now sit in fourth place going into today’s game against the Anchorage Glacier Pilots.

After pasting the Alaska Goldpanners 9-2 Wednesday, the Miners were on the wrong end of a 14-4 decision to the Panners on Thursday. That was followed by a 9-1 loss to the Anchorage Bucs on Friday to cap a four-game home stand at Hermon Brothers Field.

Panners 14, Miners 4

After losing to the Miners the day before, the Goldpanners came out of the gate swinging, scoring four runs in the first inning. The visitors added seven more runs in the third, including a two-run homer from David Edwards. The Panners pushed two more runs across in the fourth to make it a 13-0 game.

“It was pretty apparent that we didn’t come out and play our best tonight, so you can’t really hone in on one person or one aspect of the game,” catcher Micheal Thomas said of the loss. “They did a great job of coming out and attacking doing exactly what we did to them last night [Wednesday].”

Mat-Su ended the shutout in the fourth inning with an RBI groundout from Nash Knight that drove in Christin Stewart.

Miners starting pitcher David Koll went 2/3 of an inning, giving up four runs with three of them earned. Of the 14 runs scored by the Panners, seven were earned as the Miners’ defense committed five errors. The pitchers gave up a combined 12 hits on the night.

“I think with me being an older guy, I can help with our pitching staff, for the most part being young, [and] it’s definitely easy for me to tell them the small things that need to get done,” Thomas said. “I think they’ll take it, they’ll look at it and they’ll realize they don’t want to have this feeling again, so we’ll make the adjustments and come out ready to go.”

Thomas added to the Miners run total with a two-run single in the eighth that made it a 14-3 ballgame. The catcher finished the game 2-for-4 at the plate and has hit in three straight games.

The Panners scored their last run on a Nolan Meadows RBI single in the seventh. Spencer Mahoney brought in the Miners’ final run on an RBI fielder’s choice in the ninth that scored John Williams.

Williams finished the evening 3-for-5 with a run scored. The center fielder had five hits in the two-game series against the Goldpanners and also has a three-game hitting streak.

“It didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but you got to try to build off some of the positives,” Williams said. “After we gave up a bunch a runs we actually won the last few innings, so I think we got to take what we can from it even though it was a loss.”

Bucs 9, Miners 1

A day after losing big to the Goldpanners, the Miners found themselves on the business end of a 9-1 loss to the Anchorage Bucs on Friday.

Anchorage took an early lead after the team scored three runs in the third inning. The Miners only run came on an RBI double from Stewart that drove in Brenden Farney. Farney finished the game 3-for-4 with a walk. Stewart’s RBI was his 20th on the year in 20 games and continues to lead the Alaska Baseball League in that department.

On the mound, Mat-Su starting pitcher Trevor Bettencourt went 3 1/3 innings and gave up five earned runs on five hits and five walks. It was his first loss of the season in five starts.

Dylan Stuart came out of the bullpen to relieve Bettencourt in the top of the fourth and inherited two runners. The lefty threw 3 2/3 innings while giving up one run on three hits.

“You just have to go in there and just be able to get the job done by not letting more runs come across,” Stuart said. “Even giving up one [run] we still feel we have a good shot, but if you give up a few more, then that’s when you’re really down and [it’s] harder to come back from.”

Stuart made his eighth appearance out of the bullpen this season and is trying to make the change to reliever after spending this past colligate season at California-Riverside as the Friday night starter.

“My first two innings are my worst innings of my games,” he said. “I always get in trouble and then finally get that groove. All my outings I’ve done that; I’ve come in and give up the inherited runs and then I can settle down from there, and it’s very frustrating because you never want to give up inherited runs, those are more important than your runs.”

The game remained 3-1 until the Bucs scored four runs in the fourth that included RBI hits from Lawton Langford and David Andriese. The visitors added two more runs in the eighth to cap off the night.

Miners 10, Chinooks 5

The Miners rebounded from the pair of losses Saturday with a 10-5 win over the Chugiak/Eagle River Chanooks. With the Chinooks up 3-2 after four innings of play, the Miners took the lead back with three runs in the sixth, added to their lead with another in the seventh and capped the ninth inning with a four-spot. Chugiak tried to rally, scoring twice in the bottom of the ninth, but it wasn’t enough.

See Tuesday’s Frontiersman for more from this game.

Mario Gonzalez is a media advisor for the Mat-Su Miners.