Miners open season with a victory

PALMER — With a pair of exhibition games to start the Alaska Baseball League season, the goal is pretty simple.

Allow a new collection of players to get to know each other. Get everyone acclimated to a new program. And get everyone on the same page in a short amount of time.

Victory. That’s a nice added bonus.

The Mat-Su Miners opened their 2017 summer season with an 8-7 seven-inning exhibition win over the Anchorage Glacier Pilots Monday at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

“I thought the guys did a good job as a whole,” Mat-Su head coach Ben Taylor said after the win. “Nobody knows anybody yet and they played as a team. I think the thing I’m most impressed with is the communication.”

Most of the players have been in the Valley only a day or two before hitting the field Monday night. Players will continue to trickle in as they complete their college seasons.

“Everybody’s here for the same reason. It’s pretty cool meeting everybody from different parts of the country,” Miners outfielder Preston Pavlica said after the win.

Pavlica, a Grand Canyon University sophomore and native of Las Vegas, Nevada, said it was good to see new teammates come together and grab the come-from-behind victory.

“We just blended quickly. It feels good,” Pavlica said.

Mat-Su, the defending ABL champions scored five runs in the fifth to rally, and held on for the one-run win. The Miners finished with 11 hits in the win.

“We saw good pitches, put good swings on and good things happened,” Pavlica said.

Taylor said he likes the early-look of his lineup.

“I thought it was pretty good for the most part,” Taylor said. “We worked the ball the other way. We didn’t chase out of the zone much. It’s really promising. It’s a good first night out.”

Pavlica helped Mat-Su grab an early lead, and was part of the big inning that returned the advantage to the Miners. In the first, Pavlica singled to left to drive in a pair of runs. He then quickly scored from second on an Austin Dennis single to right field to give Mat-Su the 3-1 lead.

In the fifth, Pavlica collected one of Mat-Su’s six hits in the inning. With the Miners trailing 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth, Zach Sharpley, Oscar Marchena and Justin Ammons began the inning with consecutive singles. Sharpley and Marchena both scored to tie the game at 5. Later in the inning, after Quinn Cotton reached on an Anchorage error, Pavlica and Dennis got back-to-back singles. Both scored on a Blake Benefield double to give the Miners the 8-5 lead.

The Miners continue the two-game set against the Pilots, billed the Alaska Airlines Series, Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage. The first official league game is against Chugiak-Eagle River Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Hermon Brothers.

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