Miners grab 1st win of season over Bucs

ANCHORAGE — At the end of the 45-game Alaska Baseball League season, each contest is going to count the same in both the wins and losses column. But on some nights, even temporarily, some victories feel more important than others.

Friday night was one of those nights.

It took 11 innings, but the Mat-Su Miners scored a much-needed win over the Anchorage Bucs.

Quinn Cotton knocked a pitch into centerfield and Justin Ammons scored from second in the top off the 11th inning to give the Miners a 3-2 victory, their first in six meetings against the Bucs this season, Friday night at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.

“It’s a bit more magnified than it should have been considering we lost five in a row to them,” Mat-Su head coach Ben Taylor said. “It’s a good monkey-off-our-back win.”

But Taylor stressed there is plenty of more baseball to play, including another game against the Bucs Sunday at 2 p.m. back at Mulcahy.

“As soon as that things over, you’ve got to get ready for the next day,” Taylor said.

Mat-Su is now 1-5 against the Bucs this season, and a combined 14-2 against the other three squads in the ABL — the Peninsula Oilers, Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks and Anchorage Glacier Pilots.

Stellar pitching and timely hitting helped Mat-Su improve to 15-7 in league play, and moved to 1 ½ games ahead of the Bucs (13-8) in the standings.

Three Mat-Su pitchers combined to allow only three hits over 11 innings.

“The pitching was fantastic,” Taylor said. “They kept us in the game all night.”

Starter Spencer Henson went six. He allowed two hits and walked four, but struck out five. Both Anchorage runs scored were unearned.

Zach Hardy pitched a perfect seventh, and Thaddeus Ward earned the win after pitching four strong innings of relief.

Ward allowed just a hit and a walk, and fanned three.

“The best part is he only threw like 42 pitches,” Taylor said of Ward’s efficient outing.

Taylor also noted a pair of key double plays turned by the defense.

“The pitchers pounded the zone big time, allowed the defense to work,” Taylor said.

Mat-Su trailed 2-1 in the eighth, but Nick Brooks used his second home run in as many nights to tie the score at 2.

Elijah MacNamee, one of four Miners to collected two hits in the win, used a run-scoring triple in the fifth to cut Anchorage’s lead to 2-1.

In the top of the 11th, Ammons reached on a fielders choice, and was moved to second when Ryan Haug was hit by a pitch for the ABL-leading fifth time this season. With two outs, Cotton dropped a ball into centerfield to score Ammons.

Mat-Su returns home Saturday night to host the Anchorage Adult All-Stars in a nonleague game at 7p.m.

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