Miners wild way to end strange game

Frontiersman

PALMER — It’s a good thing the Mat-Su Miners had a couple of days off.

After using seven pitchers during an extra-innings win over the Anchorage Bucs on Monday, the Miners needed seven pitchers once again to grab a 6-5 walk-off win over the Peninsula Oilers at Hermon Brothers Field on Thursday.

The use of seven arms was not the only diamond oddity that gave the Miners a mad case of déjà vu. Thursday’s win also marked the second consecutive game in which the Miners drove in the go-ahead run when a Mat-Su batter was hit by a pitch.

On Monday, Nick DeBiasse took one for the team with the bases loaded to push across the go-ahead score in the top of the 11th against the Bucs.

On Thursday, Peninsula reliever Jorge Marban nicked Mat-Su’s Matt Wessinger with a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. Andy Mee scored on the play to help the Miners improve to 9-2 and win a battle of the top two teams in the Alaska Baseball League.

The count was loaded when Marban managed to plunk Wessinger.

Mee led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, and advanced to second on a Pablo Bermudez hit later in the inning. Quinn Pippen drew a walk to load the bases with two outs.

Mat-Su scored the victory and moved a half-game ahead of the Oilers in the ABL standings despite allowing a ridiculous 23 base runners. The Oilers put 23 on base despite collecting only six hits in the game. No Oiler had more than one hit, but Mat-Su’s pitching staff issued 13 walks. One Peninsula hitter reached on an error and another was hit by a pitch. Three more reached via the fielder’s choice.

The Oilers’ leadoff man also reached in each of the first eight innings of the game.

The Miners took the early lead in the second when Wesley Thigpen walked and scored on an Oilers’ error. Wessinger laid down the sacrifice bunt to push Bermudez across the plate and give the Miners the 2-0 advantage.

The Oilers quickly grabbed the lead in the top of the third when Garrett Wittels — the Florida International sophomore who made national headlines throughout the college season with his historic 56-game hitting streak — drove in two runs on a single hit sharply down the right field line. Kyle Leon was hit by a pitch early in the inning and scored on a Mat-Su error to put the Oilers on the scoreboard, and Wittels gave the Kenai club the 3-2 advantage with his RBI single.

Mat-Su took back the lead in the bottom of the inning with run-scoring hits by DeBiasse and Bermudez.

Bermudez, a teammate of Wittels at FIU, smacked a shot into right center field to score Thigpen and five the Miners the 5-3 lead.

The Oilers took advantage of two of their 13 walks in the eighth and tied the score at 5. Jeff Popick drew a walk to lead off the inning and scored on a Justin Charles ground out. Ryan Gebhart walked and later scored when Stephen Piscotty walked with the bases loaded.

The Miners used seven pitchers in the game, but the Oilers were also forced to use five pitchers. Neither starter made it out of the third inning.

Mee, Mat-Su’s seventh pitcher, earned the win after pitching the ninth.