Miners road woes continue

ANCHORAGE -- The Mat-Su Miners have a serious case of the road trip blues.

The Miners dropped their fourth straight road contest, falling to the Anchorage Glacier Pilots 5-4 on Thursday night at Mulchahy Stadium.

The Pilots did all of their damage offensively in the first two innings, roughing up Mat-Su starter Brian Bach for five runs.

Anchorage tallied two earned runs and scored a pair of runs on Miner mishaps in the first.

John Bowker doubled and drove in Jacoby Ellsbury to start the scoring for the Pilots. Jonathan Higashi followed with an RBI single and later scored on a Joey Hooft throwing error.

Haas Pratt scored on a Bach balk to give the Pilots the 4-0 advantage.

Bowker drove in Ellsbury again in the second and Anchorage took a 5-0 lead.

Despite facing a five-run deficit the Miners were able to put together a bit of a rally in the middle innings.

"We could have rolled over but we didn't," Mat-Su manager Kevin Edwards said. "Our bats got us back into it."

Matt Young led the late Miner charge with a 4-for-5 night at the leadoff position.

"He has been doing his job," Edwards said. "He has been getting on base."

Young's four-hit night raised his batting average to a team-high .327. His 36 hits and 17 walks are also team bests.

The New Mexico product had an eight-game hitting streak going as of Thursday.

Young sparked the Miners' rally in the third scoring on a Matthew Inouye single. He helped Mat-Su cut the deficit to 5-2 driving in fellow New Mexico Lobo Josh Mader on an RBI single in the fourth.

Young notched his second RBI of the contest, driving in Anthony Isabella in the sixth to bring the Miners within one.

"My goal is to help the team," Young said. "We haven't been able to pull it together."

Though the Miners were able to put four runs on the board, they were unable to get a man on board in the final three innings of the contest.

Anchorage, who put five men on the mound in the game, got an inning each of perfect relief out of Josh Wilson, Andy Shipman and Ricky Fairchild.

Fairchild retired the final three Mat-Su hitters of the contest to record his Alaska Baseball League-high seventh save.

The Miners also got quality appearances from their bullpen.

David Johnson, who has seen time as a starter and in relief for Mat-Su, had one of his best outings of the summer, striking out six and allowing no hits in four innings of work.

Johnson replaced Bach in the top of the second and retired three straight Anchorage hitters to force the Pilots to strand a pair of runners.

The Manhattan Beach, Calif. native struck out two hitters in the third and fourth innings.

"Johnson did good on two days rest," Edwards said. "That is what guys are gong to have to do for the final stretch of the season."