Miners make the most of season

Even though the Mat-Su Miners were screwed out of chance to win an Alaska Baseball League title, the Miners ended the season on Friday, just as they started — by having fun.

And along the way Mat-Su managed to grab a league-high 21 ABL wins.

“We came out today and played another great game,” Mat-Su head coach Conor Bird said after the Miners’ 7-2 win over the Alaska Goldpanners in front of more than 1,000 fans at Hermon Brothers Field on Friday. “We scored some runs, had good pitching again, played solid defense — and had fun.”

The Miners, happy and upbeat, followed the win by mingling with fans, posing for pictures and signing autographs. But about 24 hours before, the Miners probably couldn’t have been tabbed as the most jovial bunch.

Before the Miners even took the field to play the Peninsula Oilers on Thursday, in a game that should have been a factor in a race for the ABL title, the Mat-Su players learned the Anchorage Glacier Pilots had been handed the ABL crown despite playing in fewer games than the Miners.

For the past two weeks, the Miners and Pilots had been running neck-and-neck in a race for the league’s top spot. But during the final week of the season, the Pilots had been victims of several rain-outs during a week-long road trip in Fairbanks.

Anchorage’s doubleheader against the Athletes in Action Fire on Thursday was rained out, and with the entire AIA team scheduled to leave the state of Friday, there was no time to make up the games. Anchorage also had three rainouts against the Alaska Goldpanners that could not be made up.

So that meant Anchorage officially ended its 2008 ABL campaign with a 20-10 mark in 30 league games, a total that is five fewer than that of the Miners. Because of the discrepancy, league officials opted to award the title based on winning percentage. Anchorage’s record earned the Pilots a winning percentage of .667. And on Thursday the Miners, with two games remaining, had no shot of finishing with a winning percentage better than .629.

“It was a tough day. Our guys checked the Internet before the game and knew pretty much there was no way we could win the league. It was kind of a down day, hence the shutout,” Bird said referring to Mat-Su’s 4-0 loss to the Oilers on Thursday. “It’s unfortunate the weather was the way it was and the Pilots couldn’t get their games in. I wish we had a shot of winning it. I think we were playing better than any other team down the stretch.”

The Glacier Pilots were one of three ABL teams to finish with less than 35 league games. Alaska (14-19) and AIA (12-20) also failed to complete their schedules.

“It’s just a bad situation,” Mat-Su pitcher Jason Erickson said. “It’s unfortunate it had to end that way. But we made a good run, and it was a lot of fun this year.”

And the Miners, led by the arm of Erickson and the bat of designated hitter Tyson Jaquez, made the most of their chance to end the summer on a winning note.

Erickson pitched five solid innings to improve to a league-leading 7-1 and Jaquez blasted a two-run dinger and collected three RBI during Mat-Su’s win over the Panners.

“It was good. I didn’t have my best stuff, but I battled and Tyson backed me up with that home run and got me the lead. And the bullpen did a great job,” Erickson said. “It was a good way to end the year.”

Jaquez snapped a 2-2 tie by knocking a Jonathan Harmston offering over the left field wall in the fifth inning. Jaquez’ first home run of the summer drove in Ty Rasmussen, who had walked in the inning, and gave the Miners the 4-2 lead.

Jaquez, who put the first pitch he saw during the count out of of the park, said a Harmston fastball came at the perfect time.

“I was having trouble seeing the ball today,” Jaquez, a University of Nevada-Reno junior, said. “I was basically saying in my mind, I’m swinging at the first pitch. It ended up being right where I needed it to be, and I took advantage of it.”

Jaquez, who joined the team in July, was one of a pair of late additions to the Mat-Su roster who came up big for the Miners at the plate. Sean Rockey, who was also brought to the Valley in July, finished with a team-high three hits and drove in a run.

Jaquez and right fielder D.J. Gentile each finished with two hits. Left fielder Jordin Hood and shortstop Kevin Rodland scored a pair of runs each for Mat-Su.

Mat-Su finished with 21 wins (one win better than first-place Anchorage) and eclipsed the 20-win mark for the fifth straight season.

The Miners capped the season by winning eight of their final nine, and went from a team hovering around the .500 mark to a squad that battled for the league title.

Bird said he feels the success of his team is directly related to attitude.

“We were still having fun down to the last pitch, that’s huge,” Bird said. “Coming up here, guys are a long way away from home. They’ve already played a lot of baseball, and now they’re going to go home and play more baseball. If they enjoy where they’re at and who they’re with —their teammates and coaches and the people around them — they’re going to have a good time. And if they have a good time, they’re going to play hard for ya.

“We had fun,” Bird continued. “The guys really enjoyed their time up here. There was good team camaraderie. Everybody caught a fish. Everybody enjoyed the community, the scenery, the Alaska experience. It was a great summer for me, I know, and I think the guys really enjoyed themselves.”

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