Walk-off grand slam gives Miners win over Pilots

PALMER — Welcome to Alaska Jonny Locher.

Locher, a Stanford product, arrived in the Valley on Friday. Saturday, Locher hit a walk-off grand slam to lead the Mat-Su Miners to a 10-7 come-from-behind victory over the Anchorage Glacier Pilots at Hermon Brothers Field.

Locher finished 3 for 5 in his Mat-Su debut. But no at-bat was more important than his final plate appearance of the game. With three balls, two strikes and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth (and the Miners trailing 7-6) , Locher lifted a shot over the Hermon Brothers fit to give Mat-Su (3-2-1 overall, 1-1 in ABL play) its first league win of the season.

Anchorage, which used a walk-off hit to beat Mat-Su 5-4 on Friday in Anchorage, led early. The Pilots plated four in the second and took a 7-2 lead into the eighth inning.

The Miners scored a pair of runs in the eighth to cut Anchorage’s lead to 7-4, and grabbed the win with the six-run ninth. Nick Senzel reached on an error to lead off the inning and Hunter Simmons followed with a walk. Senzel scored on a Brandon Smith groundout to cut Anchorage’s lead to 7-5.

Cameron Newell singled to load the bases for the Miners. Dayne Wunderlich drew a walk to score Simmons. That made the score 7-6.

After the Wunderlich single, Nick Blaser singled to load the bases once again. That set up Locher’s opportunity for the walk-off slam.

Jon Ferrendelli pitched a scoreless ninth and earned the win on the mound. But the key performance on the mound came courtesy of Jonathon Boyer, a former Colony High standout. Boyer pitched three innings, allowing four hits and only one run.

Locher led the Miners with the three hits, three runs and four RBI. Newell, also in his Mat-Su debut, added two hits and two runs.