With walk-off win, Miners move up in standings

PALMER — The Peninsula Oilers ran out of guys to intentionally walk.

After issuing a pair of free passes to load the bases in the bottom of the ninth, Matt Wessinger scored on a Pablo Bermudez walk-off single to give the Mat-Su Miners a 5-4 come-from-behind victory over the Oilers Thursday at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

The win was Mat-Su’s second straight against the Oilers and helped the Miners (28-13) jump to second place in the Alaska Baseball League, percentage points head of Peninsula (29-15) in the standings.

The victories over the Oilers set up an end of season showdown with the league-leading Alaska Goldpanners. The Panners (29-12), losers of a 4-3 contest against the Anchorage Glacier Pilots on Thursday, hit Hermon Brothers for back-to-back doubleheaders today and Saturday. The Miners sit just a game behind the Panners in the standings heading into today’s doubleheader.

On Thursday, the Oilers tied the score at 4 in the top of the ninth. Wessinger led off the bottom of the inning with a double to deep center field. Bret Schwartz moved Wessinger to third with a sacrifice bunt, and with the wining run 90 feet away, the Oilers started dealing out the free passes.

Peninsula first walked Tyler Ruch, who entered the game hitting .322 and has a walk-off hit this summer. That sent Andy Mee to the plate, the league leader in RBI. The Oilers also intentionally walked Mee.

“I had no problem with what they were doing,” Mat-Su head coach Russell Raley said with a grin. “They were getting closer to the guy who’s been swinging the bat the best for us.”

The back-to-back intentional walks put Bermudez at the plate, who entered the contest third in the ABL with a .351 batting average.

“Everybody over here felt like he was going to it the ball hard somewhere, whether or not it went through, we had no control over that,” Raley said of Bermudez. “But everybody over here felt like he was going to put a good swing on the ball.”

And that’s what Bermudez did. The Miami Shores, Fla., native drove a ball through a gap in the right side of the infield to give the Miners the win, their fifth walk-off of the year and ninth of the season in 11 one-run games.

“He’s been big for us all year,” Wessinger said of Bermudez. “He always seems to get a hit when he needs it.”

Wessinger said the Miners, who have five walk-off wins and three more in extra innings, simply have confidence in each other.

“That’s tough to find when you get a bunch of kids from different places with different backgrounds,” Wessinger said. “We all believe in each other. We go out there and try to help the other guys out. We have complete confidence that if we get on, the next guy behind us can make stuff happen.”

The Oilers held a 3-1 advantage through five innings, but Mat-Su hustled its way to the lead with three runs in the sixth.

Nick DeBiasse singled and advanced to third on a Bermudez double. David Lyon was able to drive in both with a single to right field. DeBiasse easily scored on Lyon’s single to short right, but Bermudez managed to make the run from second, maneuver past the tag and slide his left hand across home plate.

“(Bermudez) got a good jump. I don’t think coach (Craig) Ringe would have been able to stop him if he wanted to,” Raley said, referring to Ringe, Mat-Su’s third base coach.

Lyon continued to show that Mat-Su hustle. The Kent State product stole second, and after the throw from catcher Ryan Hege, bounced over the bag, Lyon sprinted down to third. Lyon eventually scored on Quinn Pippen’s double to left field.

Peninsula managed to tie the score with Ryan Gebhardt’s sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth.

Sean Madigan led off the inning with a single. He stole second and advanced to third on Tyler Grimes’ sacrifice bunt.

The Miners took an early lead in the second with a Lyon RBI on a sacrifice fly, but Stephen Piscotty drove in Grimes with a ground out in the next half inning to tie the score. Garrett Wittels scored on a Mat-Su error in the fourth to give the Oilers the lead, and the Kenai club pushed its advantage to 3-1 with Piscotty’s sacrifice fly in the fifth.

Gage Smith pitched the ninth and earned the win on the mound for the Miners. Chad Smith, who pitched 1 2/3 innings for the Oilers, was tagged with the loss.

With the top two teams facing off at Hermon Brothers during the final two days of the ABL regular season, the league title will be decided in Palmer. Mat-Su needs three wins during the final four games to win its second straight title outright.

“They’ll be four great games,” Wessinger said. “Hopefully, we can win the league.”

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