Oilers sneak past Miners, into No. 2 seed of ABL tourney

PALMER — The Mat-Su Miners entered the final day of the Alaska Baseball League regular season with the top seed and home-field advantage in the ABL postseason already in the bag. But the Peninsula Oilers still had a big thing to play for.

With the No. 2 seed in the ABL tournament still up for grabs, Seth DeWitt took one for the team.

Literally.

The Peninsula Oilers designated hitter wore a pitch and later scored a run to spark his squad during a three-run seventh that helped the Oilers rally to post a 3-2 win over the Mat-Su Miners Wednesday evening at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

“The ball got in on him. It definitely helped to get that runner on base,” Peninsula head coach Brian Daly said after the victory. “(Mat-Su has) been trying to pitch in on him quite a few times this past month or so, since he has success right away against them early on.”

Before the Miners took the field Wednesday night, Mat-Su already had its itinerary for the first round of the ABL playoffs. The top-seeded Miners host the fourth-seeded Anchorage Bucs in a best-of-3 series that starts Thursday at 6 p.m. at Hermon Brothers. The second game of the series is slated for Friday at 2 p.m. A third game, if necessary, would start 40 minutes following the conclusion of Game 2 Friday.

“It’s exciting to be playing this late in the season in August. We’re really excited to play in front of our wonderful home fans,” Mat-Su head coach Ben Taylor said about the postseason.

Meanwhile, the Oilers used the Wednesday win to settle the other first-round game of the ABL playoffs using the three-run seventh and 6 2/3 strong innings from starter Junior Ramirez to improve to 24-20 in Alaska Baseball League play. The victory ensured home-field advantage for the Oilers during the first round. The second-seeded Oilers host the third-seeded Anchorage Glacier Pilots in a best-of-3 series that starts Thursday at Coral Seymour Park in Kenai.

Ramirez, pitching in just his third game with the Oilers, scattered eight hits over 6 2/3.

“One of our relievers, who is somewhat new to us, stepped up huge,” Daly said of Ramirez. “He was one of our only guys in the bullpen who has experience as a starter.”

In his two prior appearances, Ramirez had pitched in just an inning each.

“The plan was to originally use him out of the pen, but his arm is in good enough shape to start,” Daly said. “We were hoping to get five (innings) out of him. The fact he went as deep as he did was huge for us.”

Peninsula’s busiest reliever this season, Aaron Bash, who leads the team with 15 appearances, pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball. Justin Montgomery, typically a starter, pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his second save of the summer.

“Today was his scheduled bullpen day,” Daly said of Montgomery, who is scheduled to start against the Pilots Friday. “We were hoping to keep him under 20, 25 pitches max. The fact he only threw about 10 pitches worked out huge for us. Good little tune-u for him.”

Catcher Jared Huber used a sacrifice with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to squeeze Jeffrey Chapuran home, the game’s go-ahead run.

“That safety squeeze by Huber was big. He’s been swinging the ball better. Obviously he’s got a great arm, but he’s struggled this summer offensively. The situation was perfect with the winning run at third. I thought it’d be a good time to do it, and it worked out for us,” Daly said.

Brody Wofford also singled and scored in the inning.

The Miners also got a big spot start in the loss.

Jordan Frederick pitched six scoreless innings for the Miners, who hoped to conserve pitching during the regular-season finale before heading into the tournament as the ABL’s top seed.

“I thought Frederick did a great job. He ate up some innings, and allowed us to save our bullpen guys,” Taylor said.

Mat-Su led 2-0 going into the seventh. Levi Jordan and Jake Scudder scored runs for Mat-Su.

Peninsula needed the win Wednesday to avoid a potential tie with the Glacier Pilots in the standings. The Pilots beat Chugiak 4-2 earlier in the day to move within a half-game of the second-place Oilers.

The winners of each first-round series meet in a best-of-3 series that starts Saturday at 6 p.m. at the higher seed’s home park. The championship set continues Sunday at 2 p.m., with a third game, if necessary starting 40 minutes following the conclusion of Game 2.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.