Miners end season with win

PALMER - The Mat-Su Miners didn't achieve their ultimate goal earning an Alaska Baseball League title and a shot at competing in the National Baseball Congress World Series.

But the Miners did get a pretty good consolation prize.

With a 5-3 win over the Alaska Goldpanners, Mat-Su ended the 2006 season with on a four-game winning streak.

&#8220They wanted to come out and win these last games,” said Matt Dorey, who ended his first season as head coach of the Miners with the victory. &#8220It doesn't matter if you're playing Ping-Pong, or whatever. They just want to compete, and win.”

Mat-Su (20-15) finishes 2.5 games behind the league-champion Peninsula Oilers, and a half-game behind the second-place Anchorage Bucs.

&#8220We wish we were playing for something more,” Dorey said. &#8220If you look at those standings, everyone's so close in those top three spots.”

Alaska took a quick 3-0 lead, scoring a trio of runs in the top half of the first inning.

&#8220We got off to kind of a rocky start,” Dorey said. &#8220But (the players') competitive nature just kind of came out.”

Mat-Su put together a three-run fifth inning to tie the game. The Miners used a pair of clutch hits, and took advantage of a few Goldpanner blunders to rush back into the game.

John Hee led-off the inning with a single to left field, and later scored on a Joe Ercolano bunt.

Jay Ponciano drew a walk to give Mat-Su another baserunner.

Travis Coulter and Donald Brown each reached on Fairbanks errors. Ercolano and Ponciano scored on the

plays.

Mat-Su tacked on runs in the following two innings. Paul Gran scored the game-deciding run on a Alaska passed ball.

Joey August tripled, and scored on a Hee single in the seventh.

After allowing three runs in the first inning, Mat-Su starter David Gruener settled down to pitch six strong innings and earn the win. He fanned five Panners, while not walking a hitter.

Gruener, a University of Notre Dame product, finishes the season with a 1.54 earned run average, 3-2 record and 41 strikeouts in 46 innings.

Craig Bennigson posted his sixth save of the season.

Miner notes … Mat-Su general manager Pete Christopher said the attendance topped 600, despite dreary weather conditions, and wanted to thank the Miner faithful for all of the loyal support … Ercolano finishes the season with a team-high .344 batting average. He started the summer with a 13-game hitting streak, and ended the season with hits in five straight … Eight of the nine Miners in the starting lineup recorded at least one hit … Alaska shortstop Mark Thompson was hit with a pitch twice in the game, extended his ABL single-season record to 26 … Grand View Inn and Suites was the corporate sponsor for the final game of the season … The game was originally slated to be played on June 26, but had to be postponed because of poor weather.