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PALMER — Through the first five weeks of the season, the Mat-Su Miners have ruled the Alaska Baseball League. But there’s one club in Alaska’s summer circuit that has had some success against Mat-Su on the Miners home grass.
Heading into Wednesday night, the Anchorage Glacier Pilots were a perfect 3-0 against the league-leading Miners at Hermon Brothers Field. Two of those wins came against Miners right-hander James Harrington.
But thanks to a strong Harrington start and a big fourth inning at the plate, Mat-Su muscled its way to a 5-4 win over the Pilots in Palmer.
Harrington allowed only three hits during 6 1/3 innings and Tanner Nishioka collected a pair of hits and a pair of runs to help the Miners beat the Pilots and improve to 20-5 overall and 18-5 in ABL play. As of Wednesday night, the Miners owned a 6.5-game lead over Chugiak in the ABL National Division standings. Chugiak hosted Mat-Su Thursday night at Loretta French Field in Chugiak. Results were unavailable prior to press time.
Wednesday, Harrington worked his way into the seventh inning to pick up his third victory of the summer.
“That was a big six-and-a-third,” Taylor said of Harrington’s near-perfect innings. “I’m proud of the effort and competitiveness James Harrington showed for us tonight.”
Harrington allowed only two earned runs to help the Miners buy time until the Mat-Su hitters were able to tag Anchorage’s starter, lefty Nick Meservey. Meservey entered the game with only one hit allowed and 15 strikeouts in 13 innings pitched. In his last start, a game against the Anchorage Bucs, Meservey took a perfect game into the ninth inning.
“(Meservey) is really good. The guys did a good job of staying the course,” Taylor said.
Meservey retired the first eight hitters he faced. But in the bottom of the third with two outs, Connor Wanhanen ripped a double down the right-field line. In the fourth, with the Miners trailing 2-0, Mat-Su struck for three hits and three runs. All the action came with two outs. Matt Diorio drew a two-out walk, and Nyles Nygaard followed with a single. With two outs, Nishioka singled to drive in Diorio to put the Miners on the scoreboard.
Jake Schleppenbach followed with a single to drive Nygaard across the plate, and Nishioka followed with a run to give the Miners a 3-2 lead.
Nishioka and Schleppenbach added runs in the seventh to extend Mat-Su’s lead.
“It was a really good win, really tough win,” Taylor said. “It’s a big-time team win.”
Miners win marathon
Wednesday’s win over the Pilots came on the heels of Mat-Su’s 1-0 victory over the Alaska Goldpanners in 15 innings, Tuesday night at Hermon Brothers.
Brigham Hill, Corbin Martin and Brick Paskiewicz combined to throw 15 scoreless innings in the victory, and Vance Vizcaino scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the 15th to help Mat-Su improve to 2-0 against the Panners this summer.
“It was a haul,” Taylor said of the victory.
Paskiewicz, the top closer in the ABL, pitched the final five innings to earn the win on the mound.
“Brick was awesome,” Taylor said. “He only threw 55 pitches, which was great.”
Of those 55 pitches, 36 were for strikes. He fanned two, walked one to retire 14 of the 15 hitters he faced.
“It was definitely a long game, but we stuck to the game plan all game long and it ended up turning out in our favor at the end,” Paskiewicz said. “Our defense was really good all day, which helped.”
Tuesday’s game marked the 17th appearance of the season for Paskiewicz, who leads the ABL with nine saves, but the first time this summer he’d pitched more than one inning. Paskiewiecz has been Mat-Su’s primary closer this summer, but does have experience as a starter.
“This year I got about five to six starts,” Paskiewicz said of his sophomore season at Paradise Valley Community College in Arizona. “I’m used to pitching five or six innings, but it’s been a while. I stretched it out a little bit, but my arm felt good and the coaches had confidence in me.”
Hill started the game, and scattered four hits over seven innings. Martin worked three innings, allowing three hits and fanning five.
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