Miners hopes of title doused

KENAI — Heavy rains in the Interior prevented the Alaska Baseball League leading Anchorage Glacier Pilots from playing a scheduled doubleheader at Growden Park in Faribanks on Thursday.

Not only were those games rained out, but the Mat-Su Miners’ hopes of winning the ABL title were also officially doused.

Before Mat-Su even stepped on to the field at Coral Seymour Park in Kenai on Thursday to play a game that should have played a tremendous role in the race for the ABL title, the Miners learned they’re fate had already been sealed.

With today being the final day of the ABL season and many of the league’s players scheduled to leave the state within the next 24 hours, those Fairbanks rainouts will not be rescheduled and the Glacier Pilots have been handed the ABL title thanks to their .667 league winning percentage.

“There’s nothing you can do. The whole situation is terrible,” Mat-Su general manager Pete Christopher said. “Everybody’s leaving.”

The Glacier Pilots now end the season with a 20-10 league mark and .667 league winning percentage. The Miners, who dropped a 4-0 decision to the Oilers on Thursday, are now 20-14 and will face the Alaska Goldpanners in the season finale today at Hermon Brothers Field.

The Miners had taken a seven-game winning streak into action on Thursday, and had a realistic shot of winning a share of the league crown for the third time since 2004. But that’s before the Fairbanks rains turned the league standings into an absolute mess for the ABL.

With the Pilots officially ending the season with only 30 total league games, the Miners could have beaten the Oilers on Thursday and Panners today and still finished percentage points behind the Pilots in the league standings. Those two wins would have given the Miners a 22-13 league record, but just a .629 winning percentage.

“My guys are very disheartened, very dejected, very upset,” Christopher said.

Thanks to nearly a week’s worth of rainouts in Fairbanks, the Pilots will finish the season with five fewer games than the Miners.

The Pilots started the week by watching three of their games against the Panners rained out. Anchorage then faced the AIA Fire in a doubleheader on Wednesday. The Pilots scored a 13-3 win in the first game, but the second game was suspended and postponed until Thursday. But on Thursday the suspended game and the regularly scheduled game were both rained out.

And now there’s no time to make up the games.

“AIA is flying out of town (today) at 5 p.m.,” Christopher said. “The umpires are leaving town (tonight). Everybody’s leaving.”

Though there is nothing that can fix the mess that poor weather (and poor scheduling) has created this year, but Christopher is calling for a change in league bylaws that could prevent a similar situation from happening in the future.

“We’ve got to come up with a plan,” Christopher said. “Who knows, the weather could be like this for the next five years.”

Even though a situation beyond the team’s control is preventing the Miners from having a chance to fight for the club’s third league title in five years, Christopher is thrilled with the turnaround he’s seen from his team.

Thanks to Mat-Su’s recent seven-game winning streak, the Miners went from hovering around the .500 mark to fighting for a title. Christopher said he is looking to today’s game against the Panners as a way to end the season on a high note.

“The guys just feel terrible. It’d be great if we had a big showing tonight,” Christopher said of the 6 p.m. home date at Hermon Brothers.

The game also marks the annual fan appreciation day, and all fans are admitted free.

Peninsula 4, Miners 0

Kevin Matsumoto pitched eight innings of shutout baseball to lead Peninsula (17-17) to a 4-0 win over the Miners (20-14) at Coral Seymour Park in Kenai on Thursday.

Matsumoto allowed six hits and fanned one in the win. Dan Lombardozzi pitched a scoreless ninth for the Kenai-based club.

Mat-Su starter Jeremy Atkins allowed four earned runs in the fifth inning.

Trey Dennis and Vince Belnome each drove in two runs in the inning. Dennis gave the Oilers the 2-0 lead with his two-run single, and Belnome doubled later in the inning to drive in two more runs.

Designated hitter D.J. Gentile led the Miners with two hits.

Mat-Su 4, Peninsula 2

D.J. Gentile and Troy Scott each drove in runs in the top of the 15th inning to help give the Miners the 4-2 win over the Peninsula Oilers on Wednesday.

Mat-Su’s Tyson Jaquez forced extra innings with a two-run single in the top of the ninth. The Miners had trailed 2-0 in the game, but Jaquez used his clutch hit to push Scott and Kyle Jensen across the plate to tie the game.

Michael Rocha, Mat-Su’s closer, pitched six innings of relief to earn the win. The University of Oklahoma product fanned seven and walked only two hitters.

Starter Garrett Richards enjoyed another strong outing with seven strikeouts in nearly seven innings of work.

Scott, Blake Newalu and Kevin Rodland each had three hits to lead the Miners.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.