Pilots score walk-off win over Miners

ANCHORAGE — Mat-Su may have finished on the wrong side of a walk-off, but if Friday’s contest was any indication, it could be a compelling summer for the Miners in the Alaska Baseball League.

The Anchorage Glacier Pilots used a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th to grab a 5-4 extra-innings win over the Miners in Mat-Su’s ABL opener at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.

“It’s the ABL. I expect nothing less from our first league game of the summer,” Mat-Su head coach Ben Taylor said of the game with the Pilots, a team Mat-Su will face nine times this season. “The league is known for its parity and how hard guys play.”

Anchorage’s Justin Protacio dumped a pitch into short right field with the bases loaded to drive in Chester Pak and give the Pilots the 5-4 win in the 10th.

Trailing 4-2, Mat-Su scored a pair of runs in the top of the eighth to help force extra innings. Dayne Wunderlich led off the inning with a single and quickly scored on Cameron Frost’s triple to deep center field. Later in the inning, Frost scored on a Hunter Simmons single to knot the game at 4.

“We’ve shown a lot of character in the four nonleague games we had with our ability to come back and score some runs in bunches,” Taylor said.

Mat-Su took an early 2-0 lead in the game. Frost and Paul Panaccione led off the game with consecutive singles, and Nick Senzel was hit by a pitch to load the bases. With one out in the first, Frost scored on a Brandon Smith single. Mitchell Nau used a sacrifice fly to score Panaccione and give the Miners a 2-0 lead.

Anchorage cut Mat-Su’s lead in half with a run in the bottom of the second, and took a lead with three runs in the sixth.

Kyle Serrano made the start for the Miners, and fanned eight in only four innings of work.

“Compared to his first start of the year, I thought he was fantastic,” Taylor said of Serrano. “We increased his pitch count, was a little more efficient and got himself out of some jams.”

Arguably Serrano’s biggest out came in the bottom of the second. Serrano fanned Anchorage’s Shawn Wood with the bases loaded.

Mat-Su used five pitchers in the game. Josh Morris was tagged with the loss.

Kyle Nelson, one of three Anchorage pitchers used, earned the win.

Frost led the Miners at the plate from the lead-off spot, finishing 2 for 3 at the plate with two runs, two walks and an RBI. Panaccione, Mat-Su’s No. 2 hitter, was 2 for 5 with a run.

“I can’t complain about what we’re getting from our (No.) one through six hitters at this point. They’re doing a very good job,” Taylor said.

The Miners, 2-2-1 in nonleague play, are now 2-3-1 overall.