Miners heat up in cool temperatures

PALMER — Maybe the Mat-Su Miners are a cold weather team?

After suffering an opening day loss in temperatures that topped the 80-degree mark on Wednesday, the Miners have posted consecutive victories on nights in which the mercury struggled to creep out of the mid-50s.

Coincidence?

Most likely.

“The first game got out of hand,” Mat-Su infielder Jonathon Johnson said of the Miners’ 8-5 loss to the Anchorage Bucs during the first game of the year. “It didn’t have anything to do with the weather. It was the first time playing as a team. We got used to each other and now we’re all working together.”

But while it’s probably premature to order cloudy nights for the remainder of the summer schedule, Mat-Su did hammer 11 hits on the damp and cool Valley evening during a 7-4 win over the Lake Erie Monarchs on Friday at Hermon Brothers Field.

Although the Miners — who include a fleet of players from warm-weather states such as California, Texas and Florida — continue to adjust to Alaska’s un-June-like temps, Mat-Su’s win had more to do with aggression on the base paths than the reading on the thermometer.

“Hit and runs, making the catcher throw, being aggressive on the bases,” Johnson said of a Mat-Su squad which stole four bases, and took advantage of four Lake Erie errors and three Monarch wild pitches in the game.

Johnson and center fielder Nick Cox each scored twice in the game as the Miners rallied from an early 1-0 deficit.

After Lake Erie took the 1-0 lead in the second, Johnson singled and scored on a error to tie the game in the third. Third baseman Shane Brown gave the Miners the lead — one Mat-Su would not relinquish — with a run-scoring single that drove in Cox later in the inning.

Mat-Su used its speed to add a pair of runs in the sixth.

Third baseman Chad Marshall singled, stole second, advanced to third on a Lake Erie error and scored on a wild pitch to give the Miners the 4-1 lead. Cox scored on a error to add another Mat-Su run.

“Speed kills,” Johnson said.

Four different players posted two hits each for the Miners. Texas A&M freshman Scott Arthur, who hit leadoff for the first time this season, led the Miners with a pair of hits and two RBI. Johnson, Brown and shortstop Blake Newalu also had two hits.

While the heart of the order remained the same — Brown in the three-spot, Jonathon Cisneros hitting cleanup and designated hitter Will Musson batting fifth — Mat-Su did mix things up.

Mat-Su head coach Russell Raley took his Texas A&M products, Arthur and outfielder David Alleman, and put them in the top two spots of the order.

“We just thought it would be a good day to try it out,” Raley said of the non-league game.

Mat-Su starter Mike Carlson, a former Palmer High School standout, pitched 5 1/3 innings to earn the win.

Carlson’s pitch total accumulated quickly in the first, but the right-hander settled down to allow five hits and one earned run in more than five innings of work.

“I thought Mike did a really good job,” Raley said. “He struggled a bit early with his command, but I thought when he pitched ahead, he was good.”

Harvard freshman Connor Hulse pitched 3 1/3 innings and wasn’t tested until he allowed two runs in the top of the ninth.

Ryan Cole needed only four pitches to record the final out and save the game for the Miners.

Contact Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.