The Alaska Baseball League champions throttled the Northwest (Wa.) Honkers of the Pacific International League 14-1, Thursday morning in a game shortened to five innings at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita, Kan., because the Oilers' dominance necessitated the mercy rule.
Peninsula required just 1 hour, 26 minutes, to dispatch the Honkers.
The Oilers, comprised of college players, tonight at 7 ADT play the San Diego Force in the 32-team, double-elimination tournament that crowns the champion of amateur summer baseball. Peninsula has seized three NBC titles, its most recent coming in 1994, when it repeated as champion.
Pitching sustained the Oilers throughout the ABL season, and Thursday proved no different. Jon Maciel pitched a complete-game three-hitter, allowed one unearned run and struck out seven.
His teammates pounded Honkers pitching for 11 hits and racked a 10-0 lead in the first two innings. Every Oiler hitter scored at least one run or drove in at least one run.
Designated hitter Stephen Branca, who went 3 for 4 with two runs scored and four RBIs, delivered a two-out, bases-loaded double in the first inning.
The Oilers mauled Honkers starter Jason Salers in the second inning, piling up six of their seven runs off him in the inning before he could even register an out. Salers was charged with 10 runs, eight of them earned, before he was relieved by Kyle LeRoy after facing seven batters without getting an out.
Oilers second baseman Chris Malloy furnished a two-run, ground-rule double in the inning and third baseman Patrick Wisdom followed with a two-run home run. Branca added an RBI single that helped plate an additional run on a Honkers error and left fielder Manny Acosta provided a sacrifice fly.
Mallory and Wisdom each drove in a pair of runs, right fielder Tanner Rust scored three runs and first baseman Troy Channing scored twice.
The victory was Peninsula's sixth straight and improved it to 32-15.
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