Miners sweep three game series with Oilers

The Mat-Su Miners met the Kenai Peninsula Oilers three times in the last two weeks and won all three games.

The most recent win was Sunday, when Mat-Su beat the peninsula team 3-2. Todd Jennings, Mike Hofius and Willie Melendez each had an RBI for the Miners. James Garcia pitched seven and a third innings to earn the win. He struck out eight, walked two and allowed two runs on six hits.

The win left Mat-Su in second place in the ABL with a 19-9 record (21-12 overall), as of Monday. The Anchorage Glacier Pilots, who also won Sunday, beating the Fairbanks Goldpanners 6-3, were in first, one and a half games up.

On Thursday, the Miners went through half of its pitching staff, to beat the Oilers 2-1 in the 10th inning.

Bo Ashabranner, a 6-foot-7-inch sophomore from Long Beach State opened the game pitching three and two-thirds innings, and giving up five hits, three walks and the Oilers' only earned run.

After that Matt Vasquez gave up one hit and walked one, Abe Alvarez (the only lefty of the bunch) gave up two hits, and Wasilla High School graduate Roy Friesen (now a freshman at Columbia Basin Junior College) pitching one full inning, gave up no hits, no walks and struck out one batter.

Kevin Frizzel finished the game, giving up one hit and walking two in the 10th.

But in the end it was defense that made the difference. The Oilers had nine hits in all. They left 13 men on base. The Miners, with five hits, left 11 men on.

Mat-Su scored first, on a walk and an Oiler error in the first inning. But the Oilers came back to tie the game in the second, when Justin Seely's single brought home Luke Simmons.

Both teams had scoring chances after that, including a bases-loaded Oiler 10th, in which Frizzel intentionally walked Seely, with two outs, to load the bases. Then Matt Cunningham hit a long fly ball to left field for the final out of the inning.

The Miners' newest player, Eric Ordorica from Azusa Pacific University in Calif., scored the winning run in the bottom of the 10th. Ordorica walked to first, was batted forward to second on a sacrifice bunt by Mike Hofius, and scored on a single by Todd Jennings.

On Wednesday the Miners beat the Oilers in another close match. The game ended 4-3 in 12 innings.

More Miners news

Pitcher Luke Steidlmayer, a 6-foot-4-inch, right-handed, junior from UC Davis, is at the top of the league with a .60 ERA. As of July 8, Steidlmayer was 3-0 in 30 innings pitched.

Also as of July 8, infielder Kevin Randal, a switch hitter from Riverside City College, led the league in stolen bases with 12.

On Wednesday, Mat-Su plays the Athletes in Action at Hermon Brothers field. After that, their next seven games are on the road. The Miners come home for a season-ender against the Anchorage All Stars on Saturday, July 28. Game time is 6 p.m.