Today in the Alaska Baseball League

ALASKA BASEBALL LEAGUE

Standings

W L Pct. GB Overall

Oilers 20 12 .625 -- 27-15

Miners 18 15 .545 2 1/2 20-17-1

Pilots 17 18 .486 4 1/2 21-22-1

Bucs 16 17 .485 4 1/2 21-27

AIA 12 21 .364 8 1/2 15-25

SCHEDULE AND RESULTS

Thursday's results

Oilers 9, Fire 3

Miners 2, Bucs 1

Today's games

AIA Fire at Peninsula Oilers (DH), Seymour Memorial Park, 4 p.m.

Bucs at Miners, 6 p.m.

AROUND THE HORN

-- The Peninsula Oilers snapped a three-game losing streak and reduced their magic number for winning the Alaska Baseball League title to one with Thursday night's 9-3 pummeling of the Athletes in Action Fire in Kenai.

At 20-12 with four regular-season games left -- all against the Fire, beginning with today's doubleheader of seven-inning games at Seymour Memorial Stadium -- the Oilers are the odds-on favorite to seize the championship. They lead the two-time defending champion Mat-Su Miners, who have three games left, by 2 1/2 games after visiting Mat-Su beat the Anchorage Bucs, 2-1, at Mulcahy Stadium on Thursday night.

The Bucs' loss eliminated them from pennant contention and dropped them from third place into fourth, one percentage point behind the rival Anchorage Glacier Pilots.

Oilers outfielder Patrick Wisdom proved an offensive dynamo Thursday with a single, double, triple and four RBIs.

Peninsula blew open the game in the middle innings by scoring all its runs in two innings -- four runs in the fifth and five in the sixth.

Ryan McChesney was hit by a bases-loaded pitch from AIA starter Andrew Work (0-5) to plate one run in the fourth and Wisdom followed with a bases-clearing triple. The fifth-inning outburst included an RBI single from Wisdom, a sacrifice fly from Mike Miller, an run scored on a wild pitch and another run plated on a Fire error.

Marshall McDonald's sixth-inning single drove in both AIA runs.

Oilers starter J.D. Salles (3-2) picked up the win, going 5 1/3 innings, allowing five hits and two runs, and striking out five.

The Oilers already have committed to playing in the National Baseball Congress World Series next week in Wichita, Kan. Their first game is scheduled for Wednesday, according to the bracket on the NBC website.

-- Ben Graff (2-3) allowed three hits and struck out six in seven scoreless innings to push the Miners to their 2-1 victory over the Bucs.

Tim Zier delivered an RBI single in the third inning for Mat-Su and Dominick Francia scored in the eighth on Ryan Ford's fielder's choice.

The Bucs rallied to cut Mat-Su's lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth when Joe Winterburn smacked a two-out double off reliever Brendan Loggan and Matt Harjung followed with an RBI single. That snapped the Bucs' scoreless streak of 15 innings.

But Loggan got Dylan Wisthoff, the only Bucs batter with two hits on the night, to ground into a game-ending out that earned Loggan his first save.

Bucs starter Ryan Goodbrand (1-1) took the hard-luck loss, going 7 1/3 innings and striking out seven. He did not walk a batter.

-- Stephen Branca was named Miners MVP, and Mark Anderson and David Gibson shared MVP pitching honors when Mat-Su doled out its end-of-the-season awards.

Also honored: Ford, who won the Stan Zaborac Award given to a player who best demonstrates outstanding leadership, professionalism, sportsmanship, clutch play and Miner spirit; and Kevin Lum, who claimed the Mike Kelly Award for displaying outstanding versatility and competitiveness.