Miners earn regular season title, home field advantage throughout playoffs

PALMER — During consecutive trips to the plate, Spencer Henson drilled balls into the outfield. In the third, the right-handed hitter sent a drive into the opposite-field corner that was chased down. In the fifth, the Mat-Su Miners standout put a swing on a hard line drive that was caught in center.

In the eighth, he had another opportunity. And Henson delivered.

Henson bounced a ball off the left center field wall to drive in the go-ahead run during Mat-Su’s 5-1 win over the Anchorage Bucs Sunday afternoon at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer. Henson also helped the Miners clinch the ABL’s regular season title and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Mat-Su, which enters the postseason with a 27-17 league mark, entered Sunday’s game with just a one-game lead over the Bucs in the standings. The Bucs led the season series and would have finished as the top squad of the regular season with a win Sunday.

“It’ huge having home field advantage,” Henson said after the win. “I think we have the best atmosphere to have home field.”

More than 1,400 attended Sunday’s game.

Mat-Su has been in first place for more than five weeks. Anchorage arrived in Palmer Sunday with 11 wins in its last 12 games. Henson said Miners head coach Ben Taylor, who led Mat-Su to consecutive ABL crowns in 2016 and 2017, said the Miners need to think of themselves as the team to beat.

“He said the ABL runs through this town,” Henson said.

Three different Miners drove in runs, four scored runs and six different Mat-Su pitchers combined to allow six Anchorage hits and an earned run.

“I took everybody today,” Henson said.

Henson stepped up to the plate in the eighth with runners on first and second. Henson said he couldn’t focus on the at-bats earlier in the day.

“Try to have a short memory,” Henson said. “You’ve got a job to do with nobody out. Try to get the next guy up. Try to move the guy over.”

Kona Quiggle scored easily from second to give the Miners a 2-1 lead.

“Luckily I put a good swing on the ball, and I finally found the gap,” Henson said.

Taylor praised Henson, a two-year standout for the Miners.

“He showed unbelievable maturity,” Taylor said. “It’d be really easy to get frustrated and try to do too much. Spence has been here before and knows how to handle his business.”

Henson helped spark a four-run inning. Later in the inning, Josh Hatcher singled, and drove in two run. Nick Brooks, another veteran from Mat-Su’s 2017 championship team, scored on an Anchorage error to give the Miners a 5-1 lead.

Ian Churchill pitched 2 1/3 innings of relief, and earned the win on the mound. The lefty improved to a league-best 7-0 on the mound. He also sports a 1.54 earned run average, and has fanned 44 hitters, while walking only nine, in 40 2/3 innings of work.

“He’s come up huge,” Henson said of Churchill. “He’s always producing, every since he got up here.”

Churchill has not part of Mat-Su’s opening day roster. After finishing his freshman season at Santa Barbara City College, Churchill was added to fill a void on the Miners staff.

“That one’s Pete Christopher,” Taylor said, referring to Mat-Su’s longtime general manager. “Pete made a phone call to a former (Miners) coach, and we were able to get Church up here quick. Without Pete, Churchill isn’t here, and we might not be doing what we’re doing.”

The Miners now look ahead to the ABL playoffs, which start Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Hermon Brothers. The top-seeded Miners will host either the Anchorage Glacier Pilots or Chugiak Chinooks in a best-of-3 semifinal series. As of Sunday night, the Pilots and Chinooks were locked in a fourth-place tie with 17-26 records. Chugiak hosts the Pilots Monday at 6 p.m. at Lee Jordan Field.

The Miners will host the winner of Monday’s game Wednesday and Thursday a 6 p.m. in Palmer. A third game, if necessary, would be Friday at 6 p.m.

If Mat-Su clinches a spot in the ABL Top of the World Series championship set for the fifth consecutive summer, that series would start Saturday at 4 p.m. in Palmer. Game 2 would be Sunday at 4 p.m.

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