Miners rebound from loss with lopsided win over Oilers

PALMER — After suffering a 5-3 loss on Wednesday, the Mat-Su Miners had an opposite performance against the Peninsula Oilers Thursday night.

The Miners hit everything the Oilers threw at them, sped around the bases and got another strong pitching performance from Andrew McGee.

The result — a 10-5 win over the Oilers.

“The Miners hit the ball well, there’s not anything different we would have done,” said Oilers assistant coach Kyle Richardson. “That’s a good starter that just had a bad day. We’re better than our record, and it’s great to see the guys go out and play hard all nine innings.”

McGee, who has been a beast out of the Miners’ bullpen in recent weeks, got the nod after Mat-Su’s ace was lost to injury. About an hour before the game was set to start, starter Jay Calhoun pulled an oblique and may be out for the season. The Miners called on McGee to take the hill and stop the rolling Oilers, and he did just that. McGee went five innings, striking out five and giving up two earned runs on five hits.

“That was huge,” Miners head coach Chris Gordon said. “He’s been in every position for us this year, you name it. Baseball is all about the starting pitcher. He did great and gave our offense a chance.”

The Oilers were prepared for a pitching duel. J.D. Salles had a rough day on the mound, uncharacteristically. Salles gave up five runs on six hits in 2 1/3 innings.

The Oilers’ Josh Miller bounced back from his three-strikeout game on Wednesday in a big way. Miller had three hits and three RBI to lead the Oilers. Nate Ring had two hits and three runs. Ring hit a home run in the seventh inning just over the left field fence.

Though the Miners were up by five runs by the second inning, the Oilers did not concede the game. Peninsula scored in four innings and threatened to break into the Miner lead in the eighth and ninth innings.

With McGee and a fleet of three relievers working on the mound, Mat-Su churned out 15 hits at the plate. Clint Freeman led the barrage, finishing 3 for 5 with six runs driven in. Outfielders Bill Cullen and Bobby Boyd posted three hits each in the game. Tino Lipson and Chris Taladay added two hits each.

On Wednesday, the Miners proved when things are not going your way, only a matter of inches can be the difference in the game in a 5-3 loss.

A hard shot off the bat of Josh Delph in the sixth inning missed Taladay’s glove at third base by inches, kicked off his shin and fell harmlessly on the infield dirt. Frank Martinez would make the Miners pay. A tired Ross Mitchell, Mat-Su’s starter on the mound, served up a three-run home run to Martinez, breaking the 1-1 tie and putting the Oilers ahead for good.

The Oilers struck quickly in the game. As Mitchell struggled to find the strike zone in the first inning, the Oilers capitalized. Jordan Hein walked and scored without the ball leaving the infield.

The Miners did not want to face a deficit early, though. Cullen hit a makeshift triple on a throwing error in the second inning. Cullen scored on a Branden Berry sacrifice.

Both pitchers settled in, but the hitters had a hard time following. Mitchell struck out six in 5 1/3 innings and Peninsula starter Jon Maciel struck out three in five innings, allowing only two hits. Many casualties were looking strikeouts.

Maciel and Mitchell got similar results from polar pitching styles. Mitchell, a lefty, opened up his fastball by throwing his breaking ball for strikes early and often. In the early innings, his curve ball was the only pitch he was consistently accurate with. The Oilers watched two-seam fastballs catch the edge of the strike zone for the punch-out time and time again. Maciel did not have such control problems. The big righty pumped his fastball on the corners early. Once the Miners had seen what he offered the first time through the order, he kept them off balance with breaking balls in the latter innings.

“Our game plan was to try and get (Maciel) out of the game. We’ve got to take a better approach against guys with good punch-out pitches. We’ve got to put balls in play early and take a few less called third strikes,” Gordon said Wednesday.

The Miners were not defeated and made another run at the lead approaching the middle of their lineup. Fourth in the Alaska Baseball League in batting average at .373, Freeman ripped a ball between Oilers reliever Logan McAnallen’s legs for one of his two hits. Hitting .327, Cullen followed by tapping a ball into shallow center field. The Oilers brought in reliever Nigel Nootbaar, who walked Berry to load the bases. The Oilers opted to pitch to Taladay, who was representing the game-tying run. The Miners faithful oohed a massive swing and a miss from Taladay, hoping for fireworks. They wouldn’t have to wait for long. Taladay destroyed a double into left field that hit the top of the fence, scoring two and missing home run heroics by inches. The Miners could not keep the scoring alive, though, as pinch hitter Bob Arens struck out and shortstop Ian Sagdal lined out to center.

The Oilers would tack on an insurance run. Harvard sophomore Peter Kaplan walked the bases loaded to start the ninth. East Tennessee State sophomore Jake Long worked very slowly, carefully picking the Oilers hitters apart. Long struck out Nate Ring before giving up a single to Hein that scored Jeff Yamaguchi.

Both teams will play in the ABL Showcase this weekend at Mulcahy stadium in Anchorage.