Pitchers shine during two-day marathon win

PALMER — The Mat-Su Miners and Peninsula Oilers have come up with a whole new kind of doubleheader.

One of the longest games in Alaska Baseball League history finally ended Friday evening — 23 hours after it began — when first baseman Troy Scott lined a sharp single in into right field to score Kyle Jensen from second base and give the Miners a 2-1 win in the bottom of the 18th inning.

“Somebody had to win it,” Scott said after collecting his first base hit in seven at-bats.

“It had to happen sometime.”

The game was suspended in the top of the 17th inning at approximately 11:15 p.m. Thursday due to darkness. Although the sun had not yet officially set, heavy cloud cover made Hermon Brothers Field too dark for players to see the ball clearly.

Scott, who will begin his sophomore year at the University of Washington in the fall, received a giant bear hug from Miners General Manager Pete Christopher following the game. Scott is being housed with the Christopher family this summer, and joked that he didn’t have a choice but to come through with the game-winning hit.

“He wouldn’t have fed me,” Scott joked.

Palmer native Michael Carlson picked up the win after pitching two perfect innings after play resumed at 5 p.m. Friday in advance of the second game of the teams’ two-game set. Carlson was one of seven Mat-Su pitchers to pitch in the game, and all of them were impressive. Over 18 innings, the Oilers managed just seven hits (four of them by first baseman Anthony Aliotti) and struck out 18 times.

No Miners pitcher gave up a walk.

“I don’t think I’ve seen more of a dominating performance from a pitching staff,” Bird said. “It’s pretty unbelievable.”

Neither team managed a run until the seventh inning, when Oilers catcher Francis Larson hit a high sacrifice fly to center field in to finally end the game’s scoring drought, bringing Aliotti around to score. Mat-Su tied the game up just an inning later when third baseman Blake Newalu scored on a driven sacrifice fly ball from left fielder Jordin Hood to even the score at 1-1.

The game’s next run would not score for another ten innings.

“I’ve never been in anything like it,” Scott said.

Both teams got strong pitching performances. Mat-Su’s Steven Fischback enjoyed a solid outing in his first start of the season, holding the Oilers scoreless on two hits with seven strikeouts through five innings of work.

Mat-Su relievers Jeremy Adkins, Jason Erickson, Charles Ruiz, Will Musson, Michael Rocha and Carlson allowed just four hits in 13 innings of work. Rocha pitched the final six innings Thursday night and gave up just one hit. He and Carlson allowed just one base hit over the game’s final eight innings.

“Every arm we threw out there got outs,” Scott said.

Starter Ross Humes was equally impressive for Peninsula, going 5 2/3 innings, allowing only four runs with four strikeouts. Five Oilers relievers combined to give up just seven hits. Justin Anderson took the loss.

With both staffs working efficiently, things actually cruised right along. Though the double-length contest took almost a full day to complete, the actual game time was only 4 hours and 45 minutes.

“It was drawn out, but it was three-up, three-down every inning,” Scott said.

Conor Bird called the lengthy, nerve-wracking affair “kind of a nightmare” to watch, but said the final result made it worth the wait.

“As well as we pitched, that’s a huge game for us to win,” he said.

Frontiersman reporter Derek Casanovas contributed to this story. Contact the Frontiersman sports desk at sports@

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