Unbelievably awesome pitching and Vergara home runs power the Miners to the one seed

ANCHORAGE — It’s hard to choose which angle to begin with.

Monday was such a triumph for Head Coach Ty LeBrun and the rest of his team.

Let’s begin with this: Palmer native Landon Guggenmos tossed a complete seven-inning shutout, allowing just two hits in Game 2 of the doubleheader.

Guggenmos, a rising college sophomore who had played for the Palmer Legion team for most of the summer, made his ABL debut at Mulcahy on Monday.

It was the stuff of storybooks.

Every inning was efficient. The right never tossed more than 14 pitches in any inning. Head Coach Ty LeBrun said afterward that he was shocked when Pitching Coach Steve Hecker told him that Guggenmos was under 40 pitches midway through the 5th inning.

“Have fun,” LeBrun told him hours before the game. He said that he deliberately didn’t tell Landon the night before because that might have “kept him up.”

The guys in the clubhouse were “so fired up,” for him LeBrun said. Many of the players had their arms around Guggenmos in and around the clubhouse back in Palmer.

“I’ve always dreamed of playing for the team [the Miners],” Guggenmos said.

Left fielder Alex Vergara launched moonshot home runs in both games, both in the first innings. He has six long balls on the season, double the next-best in the league.

Starting pitcher in game one, Drew Christo, was great as well. He went five full no-hit, scoreless innings. The Mat-Su starters have been on a tear over the last week.

The Miners take on the 4-seed Oilers at Hermon Brothers starting on Tuesday. If the green and gold win the best of three series with Peninsula, then they’ll host the Championship series as well.