Valley baseball comes full circle as local products celebrate ABL title

The Mat-Su Miners have a history of included local players on their roster.

Typically it works out pretty well for all involved. Alaska products do not count against the Alaska Baseball League’s roster maximum. And even if the local kid’s innings or at-bats are limited, they spend their summer surrounded by Division I players suiting up in a storied league. I’ve followed quite a few that fit into that category throughout my 15 years covering the league.

The Miners featured a pair of local products on the 2017 summer squad, Colony High graduate Jacob Butcher and Wasilla High grad Nolan Monaghan, both standouts for their high school programs. But this year was different. Butcher and Monaghan weren’t simply around for the experience. They were there to help the Miners win baseball games.

Ultimately, Butcher and Monaghan helped Mat-Su win its second straight Alaska Baseball League title.

“The fact that they are two local guys doesn’t mean anything to me,” Mat-Su head coach Ben Taylor told me during the season. “They’re just two really good arms from good college programs, and they’re living up to that billing. The fact that they are local boys makes the story even more fantastic, but these two are highly competitive, good arms on a really good pitching staff.”

Taylor challenged the pitchers early in the season, and Butcher and Monaghan established key roles for themselves on the Miners league-leading staff. Butcher, set to begin his senior season at Minnesota-Crookston, made 10 appearances, posting a 4-1 record and 1.78 earned run average. The 2013 graduate of Colony High also had 21 strikeouts in 35 1/3 innings.

Monaghan, who will return for his sophomore season at Feather River Community College in California, appeared in 12 games, and finished with a 3-1 record and 3.60 ERA. Monaghan, a 2016 graduate of Wasilla High, led the team with 37 strikeouts during the regular season.

“They’ve just done a good job, a hell of a job,” Taylor said.

Late in the season, Monaghan threw five shutout innings, leading the Miners to the victory that clinched Mat-Su home field advantage throughout the postseason. Butcher tossed six shutout innings and earned the win on the mound during the final day of the regular season. Both chewed through big innings during a final stretch of the regular season that featured eight games in seven days.

And both proved their hometown was not the sole reason they were competing for the hometown team.

Life as a baseball player in the Valley, or Alaska in general, can be tough. The seasons at the youth and high school level are abbreviated. Weather can always be a factor, whether its May or July. High school players spend far too much time taking grounders off gym floors before they sprint through the regular season.

There are good athletes, good players, coming through the ranks. But for the most part, Valley players, in general, have had a tough time making the transition to the next level.

But Butcher and Monaghan give me hope, gives Valley baseball hope. What they did is no fluke. The pair combined for seven wins and 57 strikeouts. Butcher, a righthander, and Monaghan, a lefty, had a lot of success against hitters who will play professional baseball someday.

And it gives me hope for Valley baseball.

The area continues to boast dedicated coaches in the Palmer Little League and Wasilla Pony League, and the high school level. The Wasilla Warriors have won four straight Southcentral Conference titles, and finished third in the 2017 state tournament. Colony finished as the region runner up and advanced to state. The Wasilla Road Warriors American Legion program has been among the best teams in the state in recent years.

There’s been some success.

And Butcher and Monaghan’s success stories are part of that. They are products of the programs listed above.

As Butcher and Monaghan celebrated with their Miners teammates following a 7-1 win over the Anchorage Bucs Aug. 5, a victory that clinched Mat-Su’s second straight league title, longtime Miners general manager Pete Christopher pointed a television cameraman toward Butcher and Monaghan. I’ve had a front-row seat for six of these celebrations, Mat-Su’s half-dozen league titles since 2004.

But that moment made this one extra special. The Valley has always embraced the Miners — a group of ballplayers from across the country — as their own.

But at that moment, Valley baseball came full circle.

It’s a moment everyone involved from the youth level to the Miners should celebrate.

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