Miners get hot to close the season

ANCHORAGE -- With a shot at making it to the National Baseball Congress World Series gone, the Mat-Su Miners had nothing better to do this week than ruin the end of the season for a lot of other teams.

The Miners are on their hottest streak of the season. As of press time Thursday morning, they had won seven in a row, including the first three games of the Anchorage Wood Bat Invitational. And they're doing it in grand fashion, too -- with tight games and extra-inning heroics.

Wednesday night, the hero du juor was Mike Kelly. All he did was come in on the mound from his third base position and shut the Peninsula Oilers down for the final two innings to pick up the win. He also drove home the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning (tournament games are seven innings) with the bases loaded.

Kelly wasted no time in picking up the win for the Miners. He pounced on the first pitch of the at-bat and lined a shot that tipped off the outstretched glove of a leaping Joe Holland, the Oilers' second baseman.

"That's usually the way I go up there, looking to hit something good early in the count," Kelly explained. "I didn't think it was going to drop in there. The pitch was on the outside part of the plate, and I just went with it."

The ball dropped into right field, Jed Lowrie easily trotted down the line to score the winning run and Kelly was mobbed by his congratulatory teammates. Before Kelly's at-bat, it looked like the Oilers would escape the jam.

Lowrie singled to open the inning, and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Josh Mader. Anthony Isabella beat out an infield hit and stole second before Matt Young was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out. Joey Hooft struck out, leaving Kelly as the last chance for the Miners in the ninth.

After Lowrie scored to end the game, one of the first teammates out to smack Kelly's helmet was Jeff Gilmore. All that Gilmore did was carry a 1-0 no-hitter into the sixth inning of the seven-inning game.

He left in line to win the game, but an error and two Peninsula hits later, the Miners were staring at a 3-1 deficit late in the game.

"We owed this one to Jeff. He left his heart out there on the mound for us tonight and we couldn't hold it for him. He should've got the win in this one," Kelly said. "He pitched great."

After the 1-0 lead dissipated, the Miners were forced to rally.

Following Peninsula's big inning in the top of the sixth, the Miners countered with two runs of their own. Jeff Butts drove home a run on a groundout, and then catcher Matt Inouye hit a soft roller into the hole at shortstop.

Inouye hustled down the line and clearly beat the throw to first, allowing the tying run to score and prolonging the inning for the Oilers.

While Kelly had the game-winning hit Wednesday, Tuesday belonged to Inouye in another Anchorage Wood Bat Invitational classic.

Inouye hit a two-run homer that just snuck inside the foul pole to give Mat-Su a 3-1 lead against the Bucs in the second inning. The Bucs cried foul, literally, but the umpires disagreed, and the Miners were staked to the early lead.

The lead would hold up, as starter David Johnson and relievers Ryan Heil and Kelly combined on a three hitter, with Kelly picking up his sixth save of the season. The Bucs scored one unearned run off Kelly in the seventh, but the Miners shut the door to a would-be comeback.

The Miners opened the Anchorage Wood Bat Invitational with a 4-1 victory over the league champion Fairbanks Goldpanners.

As hot as the Miners are, the Bucs are just as cool. The Anchorage club can't buy a break in the tournament they host. In addition to the one-run loss to the Miners, the Bucs fell 1-0 to the Oilers Tuesday night, with the winning run scoring on a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh in a scoreless contest.

Wednesday night, the Bucs were beating Athletes in Action 4-1 going into the bottom of the seventh, but that's when the Fire blazed to four runs, the last three of which scored on a walk-off home run.

The Miners were scheduled to play the Anchorage Glacier Pilots Thursday afternoon, after the Frontiersman went to press, and are scheduled to play their final game of the season today at 1 p.m. against the Athletes in Action.

All games are at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.