Miners open season with win

CHUGIAK — Most players on the Mat-Su roster have been in town for just a few days, time for only a couple of workouts before opening day in the Alaska Baseball League. That’s not much time to acclimate.

But that’s just fine for the Miners.

“That’s how you want to do it,” Miners outfielder Chris Hall said. “You want to play as much baseball as possible. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. It’s nice to get here with the guys.

Hall, a University of Tennessee junior in his Alaska Baseball League debut, sparked his new club with a two-run triple, and helped lead the Miners to a 5-4 win over the Chugiak Chinooks at Loretta French Field in Chugiak.

“That felt good,” Hall said. “Good to get off to a good start, get a big hit.”

With one out and two runners on in the top of the fifth and the Miners trailing 1-0, Hall sent a Chugiak pitch deep into the right field corner. Tanner Nishioka and Brick Paskiewicz scored easily, and Hall wheeled around the base paths to side into third for the triple.

“That was big, we really needed a hit there,” Miners head coach Ben Taylor said.

With one out, Nishioka started the string of hits for Mat-Su, with a single to left field. Paskiewicz followed with a single to right center, pushing a ball right over the reach of the Chugiak second baseman. Later in the inning, Caleb Wood drove in Hall on a sacrifice fly to give Mat-Su the 3-1 lead.

The Miners added to their tally in the sixth, working the count to plate two more runs. Jake Schleppenbach drew a lead-off walk, and Tyler Wolfe wore a pitch to put two men on. J.J. Hancock coaxed another walk to load the bases, and Jack Zoellner walked to drive in Schleppenbach and push Mat-Su’s lead to 4-1.

Wolfe scored on a wild pitch, and the Miners took a 5-1 lead.

James Harrington, a University of New Mexico freshman, pitched six strong innings to earn the win on the mound. Byron Hood worked the seventh and the eight, and Zach Warren pitched a perfect ninth to earn the save.

“I’m really happy. We pitched well, played pretty well defensively and got the timely hit when we needed it,” Taylor said.

The game is scored as a nonleague contest on the schedule. Mat-Su hosts a second nonleague game against the Chinooks Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Hermon Brothers Field.