Miners rebound with home wins

PALMER — After letting the Anchorage Bucs come back to beat them 4-2 Monday, the Mat-Su Miners rebounded to win a pair of games at Hermon Brothers Field the next two nights.

Bucs 4, Miners 2

The Miners were five outs away from defeating the Anchorage Bucs Monday for the first time this season, but in the end fell short 4-2 at Mulcahy Field and dropped to two games out of first place in the standings.

The Miners came out aggressive in the first inning with AJ Simcox reaching on a bunt single followed by Brenden Farney doubling to put runners on second and third with no outs. Christin Stewart drove Simcox in with a sacrifice fly to take the early lead.

The game would remain 1-0 until the sixth inning, when Stewart ripped an RBI triple to the right center field gap that brought in Gio Brusa to extend the lead. The Miners held a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth when Michael Strenz hit a two-run homer to take the lead for Anchorage. The Bucs would add one more that inning to make it a 4- 2 game.

“We’ve pitched the ball well against them,” Mat-Su pitching coach Brad Baker said. ”There’s been a couple of guys that have got us, but not consistently. It’s been a different guy at the end of the game that’s got us.”

Miners’ pitcher Ty Schlottmann cruised through the first seven innings of the game as he held the Bucs to just one run. Schlottmann took the loss in a game where the stat line did not show how well he threw.

“I felt like I had good command of pretty much all my pitches tonight, probably the best all summer,” Schlottmann said. “[I] feel like [I] had great defense behind me, which really helped.”

It was an 86 mph fastball from Schlottmann that Strenz hit his ABL-leading fourth home run on. Baker, whose pitching staff has a 2.98 ERA, had nothing but positive words to say about his starter’s outing.

“He was able to go both sides of the plate [and] located his off speed as well,” Baker said. “He was in control the whole game.”

Miners 2, Bucs 0

While the Bucs got the upper hand Monday, the Miners enjoyed their home field advantage Tuesday, beating the Bucs 2-0 in front of more than 500 fans at Hermon Brothers Field.

Miners pitcher Philip Orr lead the charge on the mound, and the team’s shutout win was its first over the Bucs in six meetings this season.

“I don’t think we played any better [or] any worse than we had in any of the other previous five contests,” head coach Ben Taylor said. “We were who we were tonight, and we did a really good job and I’m really proud of the kids. “

Orr threw six shut-out innings, gave up just one hit, walked three and struck out four on his way to picking up his first win of the year. In the stands to see Orr pitch were his mother, grandmother, sister and girlfriend.

“They really don’t get to see me that much anyway because I’m at school four hours way, so having them see a game was awesome,” Orr said. “I was really excited and wanted to put on a show for them.”

Beau Hilton came out in relief and threw two scoreless innings. Drew Smith, Orr’s teammate at Dallas Baptist University, threw a scoreless ninth to pick up his third save of the season. Anchorage leads the Alaska Baseball League in team batting average, but was held to just one hit by the three Miners pitchers.

The Miners took the lead in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly from Christin Stewart that drove in John Williams. Stewart continues to lead the ABL in RBI with 19. The only other run of the game came from Brenden Farney’s RBI single that brought Nick La Face across the plate.

Two runs were all the team and Orr would need. The Austin, Texas, native threw only two innings at school this past spring. In three starts this summer, he has thrown 19 innings, given up seven hits and one run to go along with his 1-0 record. Orr’s 0.47 ERA is second best in the ABL.

“Having not pitched the whole year was kind of draining on me,” Orr said. “I’m out here to prove something, I guess, and it gave me some motivation, so hopefully I keep it going.”

This win snapped the three-game losing streak the squad had been on and means the Miners have beaten every team in the league. The first win against the Bucs did not stand out to Coach Taylor.

“A win is a win,” Taylor said. “They’re a really good team and we respect them, but we needed to win a game regardless of who we were playing.”

Miners 9, Panners 2

Following up on Tuesday’s win, the Miners cruised to a comfortable 9-2 home win over the Alaska Goldpanners on Wednesday.

The Miners bats came to life in the bottom of the third inning, tallying six runs on seven hits.

The Miners trailed 1-0 before their offensive outburst. Second baseman Brenden Farney put a crooked number on the scoreboard after he sent an 0-1 fastball over the right field wall for a grand slam. It was Farney’s first home run of the season.

“He [the Goldpanners’ pitcher] threw a first pitch curveball right down the middle and I took it and I kind of looked at BT [Ben Taylor] like, ‘man I knew I should have hit that,’” Farney said. “He’s not going to double back; he hasn’t done it all game and I just happened to run into one.”

Farney joined the team a couple of weeks into the season. In eight games, he has a .281 batting average with a home run, six RBI, three runs and three doubles. He has also made some very difficult plays on defense look routine.

“He’s been a great addition to us,” coach Taylor said. “His energy is fantastic, he’s a good defender, he’s a really good baseball player and were glad to have him.”

The Miners added two more that inning on a two-run double from first baseman Patrick McGrath. McGrath finished the night 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored.

“Second time through the lineup I think they kind of figured the guy out a bit,” Taylor said. “We put some really good swings on some balls and drove some balls and it was a really good inning for us.”

Center fielder John Williams would add a two-run double in the fifth and finished 2-for-4 on the night. Catcher Micheal Thomas drove in the ninth run on an RBI fielder’s choice. The Miners finished the game with 13 hits, including four players who had multiple hits.

“They always say hitting is contagious and it’s totally true,” McGrath said. “That’s how one guy gets out of a slump, because they watch their friends and we help each other out, so it’s kind of helped me a lot.”

Starting pitcher Gavin Glanz earned the win after working six innings where he gave up one unearned run, seven hits, walked two and struck out four. Glanz improved to 3-0 on the summer. The squad will hosted the Goldpanners again Thursday and went into that game in second place in the ABL standings, trailing the first-place Anchorage Bucs by one game.

Mario Gonzalez is a media advisor

for the Mat-Su Miners.