Miners score a big win over the Chinooks

The Mat-Su Miners have been looking to recapture their early season form for multiple weeks now, and on Sunday, they may have just found it.

The Miners smacked the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks 12-0 at Lee Jordan Field in Chugiak.

For the first time since the season opener, Mat-Su traveled to Lee Jordan Field to take on the Chinooks. The game was also the first time since the Miners had lost to Chugiak 1-0 on their home field. Needless to say, Mat-Su had all the motivation needed to put the hammer down on the road.

One thing that Mat-Su has struggled with at points in the season is getting out to a big start early on in games. On this day, it was the furthest thing from that.

Early on, Mat-Su would strike in the first inning with an RBI single from Brandyn Durand to “unlock” the Mat-Su Miners offense. It was very similar to what happened on Friday night with the Miners against the Glacier Pilots where Durand would manage a similar RBI single to launch the offense in that game. Perhaps a fitting name for Durand now is “the Generator.”

While the offense would be unable to manage any other runs in the first, the attack would really begin in the second inning. Mat-Su would load the bases off three straight walks from Chugiak and would score a run off a Drake Kerr sacrifice fly. Dom Patrizi would then hit an RBI single to score Kellen Strohmeyer and give Mat-Su a 3-0 advantage.

Then Kyle Mccausland would keep the train rolling with the first extra base hit of the game with a two-run double to score Dom Patrizi and Ryan Richard and bring the score to 5-0. Then Durand would once again generate an RBI with his second at-bat of the game, and put Mat-Su up 6-0 to end the second.

From then on, the Miners would not only coast on, but ride the wave of momentum the rest of the way through. In the fourth inning, Mat-Su would get another extra base hit courtesy of Christian Perez managing an RBI Double into left field and scoring Drake Kerr for the first time in the game as well as Kyle Mccausland. It was the second two-run double and would increase the lead to 8-0.

The fifth inning saw the Alaska Baseball League RBI leader Dom Patrizi add to his total with a two-run single to score Ryan Richard and Kellen Strohmeyer. In the process it also gave the Miners their biggest lead of the season as they went up 10-0 on the Chinooks after five. Mat-Su looked as dominant as Bill Bellicheck’s Patriots, but they were far from done.

Throughout the offensive production of the Miners, Tucker Timmerman pitched another incredible game by giving up no runs and only four hits to keep his team in position to dominate. The incredible pitching by Mat-Su also increased a streak that has lasted since last Tuesday in Game No. 2 of the Doubleheader vs. the Anchorage Glacier Pilots. They have not given up an Earned Run in nearly 40 total innings of play. Timmerman’s performance while not as flashy as some of his teammate’s should not be forgotten.

The sixth inning saw Mat-Su load the bases once again and a pinch-hitting Nick Bisaccia cash in to score Ryker Schow on an RBI Single increasing the lead to an incredible 11-0. The barrage was not over though as Drake Kerr would manage his second RBI of the game which would score Chase Wilcox for his first run of the game. In the process, Mat-Su would hit 12 runs for the first time in a game this season. With the lead where it was, the Miners now could end the game in seven innings as long as they could secure a 10-run advantage. Although easier said than done, the confidence of the team made it seem as though it was an inevitability.

Aidan Dolinsky and Nico Tomasello would come in during the sixth and seventh innings to keep the lead at 10 and get some late-game experience as well.

Both did a solid job by giving up no runs and only two total hits combined down the stretch. It would be enough at the end of the seventh to secure the Miners with a 12-0 Run Rule victory. The top performers were unquestionably Dom Patrizi and Kyle Mccausland. Patrizi managed three RBI, two hits, and scored one run while Mccausland kept up his extra base hot streak with another two-run double alongside three total hits, two RBI and two runs scored. A whopping five Mat-Su players had multiple RBI in this game, demonstrating just how on point so many players were in this game.

With back-to-back wins in the books for the first time since the fourth and fifth games of the season, the Miners are back to .500 in ABL play and solidly in the third spot in the league standings. The opportunity to go even higher in the standings is absolutely there for Mat-Su as well with matchups against the Pilots and Chinooks awaiting them both on Monday and Tuesday.