Miners mash

PALMER — The Mat-Su Miners mounted a come-from-behind victory over the Chugiak Chinooks at Hermon Brothers Field on Tuesday night, scoring the 8-4 win with help from the hot bat of first baseman Nick Cirelli.

“I think we just have that never die mindset. We’ve come back from a lot of ball games this year. We’ve consistently left guys on base, but our guys continue to fight and I think they kind of know that we’re never out of a ball game and they know that at any point we could strike,” said Miners head coach Tyler LeBrun.

Following their 8-4 victory over the Chinooks in Palmer on Tuesday, the Miners notched another comeback victory, beating the Anchorage Glacier Pilots 7-6 in 12 innings. Cirelli came up clutch once again on offense, hitting a homerun and driving in the winning run with a sacrifice fly.

On Tuesday, over 1,100 fans packed the stands at Hermon Brothers Field on a near cloudless night to see the Miners rally to win their fourth straight game. Chinooks starting pitcher Zach Sundine worked with a lead early. Chugiak scored two runs in the first inning and tacked on another in the third, earning all three runs off Miners starter Christian Seelhorst.

“Christian didn’t have his best stuff in the start, but our bullpen came in and Lance Santerre gave us four scoreless and really competed for us to get to the back end of our bullpen which is really tough to hit,” said LeBrun.

Santerre gave up just three hits and struck out three Chinooks during his four scoreless innings of work. While Santerre was dealing from the mound, the Miners offense started a rally in the Valley. In the bottom of the sixth inning, a Mike Ferrara single was followed by a Josh Mrozek single. With one out, shortstop David Bermudez hustled down the line to beat the throw after an error by the pitcher Sundine to load the bases. Third baseman Casey Rother drew a four-pitch, bases-loaded walk to score the Miners first run of the game. On the first pitch of the next at bat, Nick Cirelli drove a deep, slicing opposite field grand slam over the left center field fence to give the Miners the lead for good.

“I was just looking for a ball up, just trying to score one at least. I mean we were struggling to score guys on base and just trying to get a fly ball, elevate something for a sac fly at least, and I saw it well, hit it well and stayed with my approach going opposite field. It felt really good,” said Cirelli. “I’m’ more of a pull guy. I mean that’s my second home run ever to the opposite field, so it felt really good and I like that approach.”

After Cirelli finished running the bases and was mobbed by his teammates outside the home dugout, Tyler Rando hit a solo homerun over the left field wall near the foul pole. Cirelli wasn’t done contributing on Tuesday night, smacking a single in the eighth inning. Gerard Sweeney would pinch-run for Cirelli and score on a Tyler Rando double. The Miners racked up 15 total hits, led by Cirelli, Rando and Aaron Walters who had three hits.

Kent State freshman Evan Wolf and West Florida senior Evan Floyd were able to slam the door on the Chinooks comeback attempt. Between Santerre, Wolf and Floyd, the Miners pitchers allowed only one run over the last six and two thirds innings on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Miners won their fifth straight game in extra innings over the Pilots at Mulcahy stadium in Anchorage. Alex Magers got the win in relief for the Miners, who came back with two runs in the seventh and eighth innings to tie the game.

“We’re finally starting to hit our groove. I think our guys are starting to see what happens when we swing the bats. That’s what I expect to see from our team. Our thumpers are finally getting into the lineup and actually starting to hit for us and I think the sky’s the limit for this group if they keep rolling like they are. We’re going to be tough to beat,” said LeBrun.

After a year without Alaska Baseball League games on the picturesque green carpet of field that is Hermon Brothers, the Miners family are happy to be back at the ballpark together. General Manger Pete Christopher said that average attendance for home games is near 1,000 fans.

“It’s great it’s great for the people, the fans. We didn’t find out we were having a season until April 9 and the city of Anchorage just dragged their feet making a decision,” said Christopher. “It’s great because we had 15 hits, and we’ve never been able to string four or five hits together but not tonight. So it’s good and the pitcher that they threw against us has killed us the other times he’s pitched against us so it was good to beat him up a little bit.”

The Miners will take on the Peninsula Oilers at Hermon Brothers Field on July 4 at 4 p.m.