Miners see promise even in defeat

PALMER — With clear skies and temperatures hovering in the 70s, there’s no doubt Sunday was a prime example of a great Alaska summer day. But as far as Mat-Su Miners manager Ben Taylor is concerned, it’s still spring in the Alaska Baseball League.

The Chugiak Chinooks plated three runs in the top of the ninth inning to snag a wild, back-and-forth, 6-4 victory over the Miners at Hermon Brothers Field in the first of three exhibition games between the ABL rivals.

“It’s the first day of the spring training games,” Taylor said of the Miners, who cap a three-game nonleague set with the Chinooks Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Hermon Brothers Field. “The great part is we get three games to look at the kids.”

Mat-Su, which also played the Chinooks at Chugiak late Monday, opens its ABL slate Thursday against the Fairbanks-based Alaska Goldpanners at 7 p.m. at HBF. But for three nights Taylor and his staff have the chance to get a good look at the 2013 edition of the Miners before the regular season schedule starts late in the week.

“It’s kind of cool to have them in some different situations, see how the guys respond, see what we need to fine-tune, what’s pretty good, what’s not so good,” he said.

And Taylor saw a little bit of everything in the team’s 2013 home opener, which drew an impressive 1,017 fans.

Mat-Su starter Ty Schlottmann didn’t allow a hit or earned run in three innings of work, and four Miners arms combined to throw a four-hitter. Four of the nine outs Schlottmann forced came via a soft ground ball right back to the pitcher. The Miners also showed the ability to rally, scoring four runs in the sixth to erase an early 3-0 deficit.

But on the flipside, the Miners also committed five errors.

Taylor attributed that to first-game jitters, more than anything.

“A lot if it, it was a packed house,” Taylor said. “The kids really want to do well at home. They really want to show well for Miners fans.”

Four of the five errors were throwing errors.

“That’ll get cleaned up,” Taylor said. “There were no effort issues whatsoever.”

The Miners trailed 3-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth, but infielder Patrick McGrath sparked Mat-Su with a two-run single with the bases loaded. Christin Stewart singled and Nash Knight and Spencer Mahoney drew consecutive walks to load the bases.

With the bases loaded, McGrath drove the first pitch off Chinook reliever Asa Johnson into center field, and both Stewart and Knight scored to cut Chugiak’s lead to 3-2.

Catcher Michael Thomas took a Johnson pitch to the shoulder to load the bases again. Gio Brusa drew a bases-loaded walk, which pushed Mahoney off the plate and tied the score at 3.

Later in the inning, McGrath scored on a Chugiak error to give his team the 4-3 advantage, Mat-Su’s first lead of the game. McGrath led the Miners with a hit, run and two RBI in the win. Stewart, Ben Wylly and Greg Partyka also had hits in the loss.

Chugiak trailed 4-3, but the Chinooks did enough in the ninth to snag the win. The Chinooks drew three straight walks off Mat-Su reliever Patrick Kenney.

Kenney was able to get a key strike out in the inning, fanning Jacob Murray, but not before Drew Turbin scored on a wild pitch during the Murray at-bat.

“I felt really bad for Patrick Kenney. He worked really hard to punch that guy out, but they tie the game with the wild pitch. He showed a great deal of competitive spirit there,” Taylor said.

Tyler Krahn and Griffin Gum also drew walks and scored later in the inning to help seal the game for the Chinooks.