Miners hold off Bucs down the stretch for a 7-6 win

ANCHORAGE — One day after throwing away a 4-0 lead at home, Mat-Su traveled to Mulcahy Stadium on Sunday and avenged its loss against the Bucs.

“I told the guys last night after a frustrating game to not forget about it... I thought our guys battled [today],” Mat-Su head coach Ty LeBrun said.

The Miners jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Kaden Carpenter, who led off for the first time this season, earned a walk. Then the right fielder went from first to third on a single to right from Cooper Vest.

Two batters later, notable pull-hitter Maddox Haley went to the opposite field for a two-run triple.

Then second baseman Nolan Tucker, going from seventh to fifth in the batting order, knocked in Haley will a groundout to first base.

Tucker’s college teammates at Valpo, Alex Thurston and Kaleb Hannahs, contributed to the Miners’ fourth run of the game in the second inning. Thurston led off with a single. Two batters later, Hannahs knocked him home with a groundout to shortstop.

Thurston, by the way, would record another single in the game. He has four singles in his last two games.

Mat-Su starter Ethan Lyke was going strong until the fourth inning. The Murray State southpaw suffered two runs in the third and two more in the fourth until relief pitcher Vinny Bianchi took over with two outs.

Bianchi got Myles Smith, the centerfielder, the strikeout. Lyke, in his defense, made his first start of the ABL season. He started just five times this past season at Murray State.

Bianchi punched-out two of three batters he faced in the fifth (including an awesome strikeout of Jaxon Soreson to end the inning) and worked through the sixth. The New Jersey native allowed 0 hits.

Things got a little dicey in the seventh with Mario Bejarano on the bump for the Miners. But the lefty got out of the inning with a flyout and groundout after allowing two runs to cross that made it a 7-6 ballgame.

Perhaps the two biggest plays of the game came in the top of the seventh and the bottom of the eighth. Catcher Grant Fahrlander smacked a single through the hole into left field in the seventh that scored the seventh run for Mat-Su. The Texas product was 0-for-8 at that point this season and faced a two-strike count.

In the eighth, after back-to-back walks forced LeBrun to insert closer Will Rizzo for a five-out save, Kaleb Hannahs made a special play.

Rizzo got Smith to fly out to right field. Anchorage left fielder Ben Haar tagged up from second base, and Cade Lacy, the runner at first base, also tagged up. Carpenter, upon catching the fly ball, tried to nail down Haar going to third. Hannahs, the third baseman, knew that there was no shot of getting him out, so he stepped way off the base to cut off the throw and in one motion threw out Haar going for second base.

A 9-5-6 double play to end the inning.

Rizzo shut it down in the ninth and was fired up in doing so. The revenge was sweet.