Quality plate appearances surge the Miners past the Bucs 12-4

PALMER – Mat-Su Head Coach Tyler LeBrun and Assistant/Hitting Coach Kyle Watson emplored their team to have more “team” at-bats entering Monday’s tilt against the Bucs.

Eleven walks and four hit batters later, the Miners emerged victorious at Hermon Brothers Field to improve to 4-1 in ABL play.

“We hit a lot of balls hard [but] right at guys [early in the game]. And our approach coming into today was ‘let’s put together good at-bats, try to foul balls off’... when you keep plugging away usually good stuff happens,” LeBrun said.

But the Bucs were the ones in the lead for the first half of the game.

Anchorage third baseman Jacob Rebrook homered off Mat-Su starter Candon Dahle in the second inning. Nolan Wilson singled immediately after the solo shot and then scored two batters later when Curtis Hebert singled.

Then in the third, Boedicker drew a walk, Thomas singled, and Sorenson singled to score Boedicker.

But perhaps the first sign of the good things to come for the Miners was a lead-off double to the right-center gap off the bat of catcher Austin Machado in the bottom of the second. Mat-Su has struggled this season to put the lead-off man on board, and although Machado was stranded in the second frame, the seed was planted.

Trailing 3-0 midway through the fourth, first baseman Cooper Vest (who played in the outfield in Sunday’s exhibition vs. the Kingsmen) singled to lead things off. Caden Carpenter, who turned 20 on Monday, drew a walk. Machado, clearly a power hitter, took one for the team and successfully laid down a sacrifice bunt that advanced both runners. Vest would then score during Maddox Haley’s at-bat on a wild pitch.

“[I was] seeing the ball well,” Carpenter said.

Kaleb Hannahs and Emilio Barreras earned back-to-back singles with two gone in the bottom of the fifth, and again, while they were left on base, the momentum seemed tangible in favor of the Miners.

The absurdity began in the bottom of the sixth. Carpenter and Machado each got hit by pitches to kick-start the craziness. Haley then popped out on the first pitch he saw, but Landon Rogers drew a walk that loaded the bases for Alex Thurston. The second baseman from Valpo had a productive at-bat, hitting a sac fly to center that scored Carpenter from third base. Then Tomerlin and Hannahs, the eighth and ninth batters in the lineup, drew walks.

During Tomerlin’s at-bat, Landon Rogers took off for second base (with Machado at third base). Anchorage catcher Nolan Wilson threw down to second, instinctually attempting to catch the runner stealing. The problem? Nobody was covering second base. The throw went into center, making it easy for Machado to strut home to tie the game.

Thirteen Miners came to bat in the bottom of the seventh. Eight of them scored, on just two hits.

Mat-Su put together one good at-bat after another as the barrage of Anchorage pitchers continued to throw balls.

The bottom of the seventh inning went as such: walk, hit-by-pitch, walk, sac fly RBI, walk, another hit-by pitch (for an RBI), an RBI walk, another RBI walk, an error that scored two more runs, an RBI double, a strikeout, and then a lineout.

By putting together team at-bats, you “play for each other,” LeBrun said. That’s certainly what happened on Monday.

Also of note - Kaleb Hannahs reached base in all five of his plate appearances. He singled his first two times up, then walked in each of the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings.