The Goldpanners weren't even playing Saturday, but they were among the winners when the Anchorage Glacier Pilots were denied a sixth championship at the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan.
The Pilots lost an extra-inning championship game to Eldorado, Kan., a loss that allows the rival Goldpanners to keep sole possession of the tournament record for most championships. Fairbanks has six and Anchorage five.
A walk-off sacrifice fly in the 11th inning gave the El Dorado Broncos a 2-1 championship win at the 75th annual tournament.
The Pilots finished the 36-team double-elimination tournament with a 7-2 record. Six of those wins came in the loser's bracket as the Pilots won day after day after day to stay alive and earn a date with the undefeated Broncos.
Had the Pilots won Saturday's extra-inning thriller, they would have forced a second game with the Broncos that would have taken both teams into the wee hours in Wichita.
Instead, the tournament wrapped up shortly after midnight with a Kansas team celebrating victory.
The start of the game was delayed more than two hours by rain, and was halted again in the seventh with the score tied 1-1.
El Dorado won it with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th. Catcher David Allbritton, the No. 7 batter in the El Dorado order, lined out to right field to drive in Wes Cunningham from third base.
The Broncos took a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a leadoff home run by Kyle Tiernan. The Pilots tied it up in the sixth when Carlos Alonso walked and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. He scored from there on Ryan Gebhart's two-out single.
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