Miners fall in extra innings

PALMER — Following their 4-2 loss to Taiwan Saturday at Hermon Brothers Field, the Mat-Su Miners were looking good.

As what has become tradition when Taiwan comes to town, numerous Miners players and coaches were able to trade their foreign counterparts hats and jerseys from the states for gear emblazoned with Taiwanese lettering.

“This thing is sweet,” Miners head coach Conor Bird said after snagging a dark blue Taiwan pullover.

Made up of collegiate players from across the baseball-crazy nation, Taiwan is in Alaska playing a series of games against Alaska Baseball League teams.

While the Miners made out okay off the field things didn’t work out quite as well on it, as Taiwan scored twice in the top of the 10th inning to hand the Miners the nonleague loss.

“They played pretty well. They have some athletic guys, they executed the short game on us and had some timely hits,” Bird said.

Miners reliever Andrew Berger took the loss, while Taiwan’s Ying-Shan Wang worked a scoreless final three innings to get the win.

Mat-Su took the early lead when center fielder Pat Minogue was hit by Taiwan starter Chi Ju-Lin to start the second inning, then advanced to third on Will Musson’s double.

Minogue came in to score on a sacrifice fly by shortstop Kevin Rodland to put the Miners up 1-0.

Miners starter David Rowse gave up just one hit through his first four innings of work, but got into trouble in the fifth, allowing a leadoff single to designated hitter Wei-Han Chen, who moved over to second on a sacrifice bunt. Chen advanced to third on a passed by catcher Steve Domecus, then scored on a groundout by second baseman Hsuan-Tsung Fang.

Taiwan took a 2-1 lead in the seventh on a double by Chen and RBI single from first baseman Chih-Hao Wang. That ended Rowse’s day, as he was lifted in favor of reliever Garrett Richards.

Rowse gave up two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings of work, striking out eight and walking three.

Mat-Su made sure Rowse wouldn’t be on the hook for a loss in the bottom of the seventh, tying the score at 2-2 when Musson came in on a wild pitch by Taiwan reliever Cho-Chih-Ming.

Musson, who spends most of his time on the Mat-Su pitching staff, started the inning off with a single and advanced to third on a clutch two-out single by designated hitter Wes Dorrell.

The versitile Musson had the hot bat in the game, going 3-for-4 with a run scored and a double, Mat-Su’s only extra-base hit of the game.

Berger struck out the first hitter he faced in the tenth before things started to turn sour for the Miners. Right fielder Nan-Yao Fang reached on an error by first baseman Troy Scott, then advanced to third on a double by shortstop Hung-Chung Yang. Fang came home on an RBI single by left fielder Kai-Yen Chang through the drawn-in infield, and Yang scored on a nifty sacrifice bunt by cleanup hitter Po-Yo Lo to put Taiwan up 4-2.

Taiwan got a spectacular play at third base in the tenth as Lo leaped high in the air to take away a base hit from second baseman John Shaffer. Wang then managed to get Dorrell and Hood to ground out to end the game.

The loss was Mat-Su’s first game at Hermon Brothers Field after a 4-3 swing through Fairbanks, which Bird said he considered a success.

“That was our goal to go

4-3 and we did that,” he said. “I think it puts us in a pretty good position.”

The Miners return to Alaska Baseball League action today when they’ll face the Anchorage Glacier Pilots at 2 p.m. at Hermon Brothers.

The Miners, Pilots and Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks are currently in a virtual tie for first place in the ABL standings, with the Panners at 7-4, Pilots at 8-5 and Miners at 9-6 in league play, meaning today’s game could determine who sits at the top of the standings heading into the next week.

“It should be a fun match-up,” Bird said.

Contact Matt Tunseth at 352-2265 or matt.tunseth@frontiersman.com

MINERS 4, TAIWAN 2

Saturday, Hermon Brothers Field

Taiwan 000 010 100 2 — 4 8 0

Mat-Su 010 000 100 0 — 2 8 1

Mat-Su: Rowse, Richards (7), Berger (9) and Domecus. Taiwan: Lin, Ming (6), Wang (8) and Gao. WP: Wang. LP: Berger. 2B — Chen, Musson. SAC — Wang, Lo, Rodland. LOB — Mat-Su 7, Taiwan 8.