Miners' Malone hurls no-hitter

PALMER -- With his Mat-Su Miner squad in a pennant race and in contention for a berth to the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan., Chris Malone hurled the organization's first no-hitter in 19 years in an 8-0 win over the Alaska Goldpanners at Hermon Brothers Field.

Jim Long was the last pitcher in a Mat-Su uniform to toss a no-hitter. Long faced 30 hitters, striking out four and walking four in a 5-0 win over the Peninsula Oilers on July 12, 1985. Jared Weaver was the last pitcher in the Alaska Baseball League to throw a no-hitter. The Anchorage Bucs pitcher threw a no-hitter in a seven-inning contest in the 2002 Wood Bat Tournament.

As impressive as Malone's first career no-hitter at any level of baseball was the fashion in which he dominated the Goldpanner hitters. Malone cruised through the Alaska lineup striking out 18, while throwing just 112 pitches.

Sometimes everything just goes right. Sunday, everything went right for Malone.

What worked for the Miner right hander?

"Everything," Malone said.

Though the San Joaquin Delta College product -- who will pitch for the University of Tennessee next season -- had success with his usual mix of pitches, it was a new pitch in Malone's repertoire that completely baffled the Goldpanners.

"I have a split finger now that I just started throwing today," Malone said. "I've just been working on it for the last week. I hadn't thrown it in the bullpen, hadn't thrown it in a game."

Malone said he still was in need of an out pitch -- something he could throw to a hitter with two strikes. Malone and Miner catcher Billy Munich experimented with the pitch prior to the game during the warm up and decided to give it a try against the Goldpanners.

"We pulled it out on the second hitter," Munich said. "It was just a nasty pitch. (The hitter) swung right over it."

Johnny Colt was the first hitter to be introduced to the new pitch, and Colt was the first of Malone's five consecutive strikeouts. Colt and Miner killer Cameron Blair each struck out in the first inning and Malone struck out the side in the second.

As Malone mowed through the Goldpanner lineup, Miner head coach Mike Buchmiller watched with amazement, unaware of Malone's decision to add a pitch to his repertoire right before game time.

"In the third inning I leaned over to one of my coaches and said, 'Wow, his change up is really working tonight,'" Buchmiller said. "And my coach said, 'Well, it's not a change up, it's a split finger.'

"This is something I had no idea about."

Malone said 12 of his 18 strikeouts came on the split finger fastball.

"Nothing in my wildest dreams would lead me to believe that you could bring out a pitch like that and be so comfortable doing it and that would lead to something so special," Buchmiller said.

Malone struck out the side in four different innings, retired five out of the first six hitters of the game with the strikeout and sent the final four hitters of the contest down swinging.

Malone faced just 28 hitters and did not allow a runner past first base. Malone walked Brian Jerolman in the fifth inning and hit Paul Keck with a pitch in the eighth. Malone kept the number of hitters he faced to just one over the minimum by picking off Keck at first just moments later.

"Tonight everything went right, he was dominating," Buchmiller said. "He had command of three pitches and threw the ball where he wanted to."

With Malone throwing arguably the finest game in the history of the Miner organization, Scott Simon helped seal the game offensively, blasting his third home run of the season in the eighth inning. The Simon two-run dinger and a pair of Clayton Carson RBI broke open the game for Mat-Su. The Miners initially took a 2-0 lead on Carson and Zeke Parraz run scoring singles in the fifth inning.

"Once I got the first two runs I felt like, hey now I can pitch," Malone said. "If guys were behind in the count I felt like I pretty much could throw anything."

Malone's performance came at an opportune time for the Miners. The Miners won two of three against the Goldpanners and the win moved the Miners to within a game of second-place in the Alaska Baseball League. Mat-Su (16-13) has just five regular season games left this season. The club hosts the Anchorage Glacier Pilots in a two-game series starting tonight at Hermon Brothers Field. The 6:30 p.m. contest will be followed by a game against Anchorage on Wednesday, a doubleheader with AIA at Hermon Brothers on Thursday and the season finale against the Goldpanners on Saturday, also at Hermon Brothers

Field.

Random hits … The new Mat-Su Miner mascots, Mat and Su, made their Hermon Brothers Field debut on Saturday … Also on Saturday, Rep. Carl Gatton presented Miner general manager Pete Christopher with a citation from the state of Alaska, commemorating Christopher's work in the community and efforts to build a winning Mat-Su Miner organization.