Miners open postseason with win over Oilers

PALMER — Mat-Su’s battery powered the Miners to an early playoff series lead Wednesday night.

Starting pitcher Spencer Henson tossed seven scoreless innings and catcher Ryan Haug drove in the go-ahead run that broke a scoreless tie, as both helped lead the Miners to a 3-1 win over the Peninsula Oilers in the first game of a best-of-3 Alaska Baseball League semifinal series.

“Spencer was Spencer,” Mat-Su head coach Ben Taylor said. “His heart and his guts are as big as his body, and he put it on the line for us pitch after pitch after pitch. That’s why he was our pitcher of the year.”

Henson, an Oral Roberts University incoming sophomore who posted a 0.61 earned run average during the regular season, allowed only three hits. He struck out four and walked four.

Henson also got the best of a pitching duel. Peninsula starter Preston Plovanich was also strong, scattering four hits and an earned run over six innings. He fanned five and walked four.

“He kept us off balance. He threw his breaking ball for a strike. He did a heck of a job,” Taylor said.

Haug, who gunned down a Peninsula runner trying to steal second to end the top of the sixth, came up big in the bottom of the inning with a sharp single to right field. Quin Cotton scored from second on the play to give the Miners the 1-0 lead.

“That guy has been in big positions at the University of Arizona. He’s played in (the College World Series in) Omaha. He’s an older guy and came up big when we needed him the most,” Taylor said of Haug after the win.

The Miners added to the advantage with a pair in the seventh. Brandon Chinea led of the inning with bloop single and scored on a Cotton single to right. Blake Benefield added an RBI later in the inning.

Overall, Taylor praised his team’s effort and ability to grind out victory to take the early lead in the playoff series.

“That’s the playoffs in the Alaska Baseball League. Every out is contested. Every pitch is contested,” Taylor said. “This thing is going to be competitive as hell the rest of the way out for us.”

Both teams also endured a constant downpour as rain blanketed Hermon Brothers Field throughout the game.

“We’ve got to get it in,” Taylor said.

The Miners are now a win away from their fourth straight trip to the ABL Top of the World Series championship set. Mat-Su hosts the Oilers in the second game of the series Thursday at 2 p.m. at Hermon Brothers. A third game, if necessary, would follow.

The winner of this series moves forward to the ABL Top of the World Series, scheduled to start Friday at 6 p.m. at the home field of the highest seeded team remaining in the tournament. The second-seeded Anchorage Bucs own a 1-0 lead in their best-of-3 series against the Anchorage Glacier Pilots thanks to a walk-off win Wednesday night. Jake Veith hit a two-run shot for the Bucs in the bottom of the 12th to give his team a 6-4 win over the Pilots.

Mat-Su is the defending league champion and the top seed in the postseason.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.