Mills worked six-plus scoreless innings -- reliever Mark Winkelman worked out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the seventh -- to sustain the Alaska Baseball League champions on the way to a 7-3 win over the San Diego Force at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.
The Oilers are 2-0 in the 32-team, double-elimination tournament that crowns the summer amateur champion of U.S. baseball. They opened the tournament Thursday with a 14-1 win over the Northwest (Wash.) Honkers in five innings.
Mills (8-2) allowed just three hits and struck out five, though he walked three and hit two batters. He's hit 10 batters in 54 innings this summer, but that's nitpicking, considering Mills' 2.00 earned-run average.
Winkelman pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless ball, and induced a double play with the bases loaded in the top of the seventh to preserve the Oilers' 2-0 lead. The Oilers owned that advantage courtesy of a fourth-inning RBI single from shortstop Mike Miller, the ABL Player of the Year, and Stephen Branca's RBI double in the fifth.
Peninsula exploded for five runs in the seventh, when it sent 11 batters to the plate and seized a 7-0 lead. Tanner Rust furnished a sacrifice fly, Boomer Collins delivered an RBI single and the Oilers scored three other runs courtesy of two San Diego errors. The Oilers cranked five hits in the inning and also got two other runners on base via a walk and a hit batter.
Branca and Collins are newcomers for the Oilers, Branca picked up from the ABL's Mat-Su Miners and Collins snagged from the ABL's Anchorage Bucs.
After leading Mat-Su with eight doubles and 24 RBIs in 40 games, Branca in two games in Wichita has gone 5 for 9 with two doubles, five RBIs and three runs scored.
Collins went 2 for 4 with one run scored and one RBI in his Oilers debut. Miller and Troy Channing each generated two hits Friday, and Channing scored two runs.
Another Oilers newcomer closed the deal Friday night. After Oilers reliever Gabriel Asakura surrendered three runs in the ninth inning, Hunter Lemke, the former Buc, came on to snuff the Force with a game-ending strikeout.
The Oilers have hit .417 in two tournament games and the pitching staff in 14 innings has allowed just five hits and put up a 1.93 earned-run average.
Ten teams have been eliminated from the tournament. The Oilers are one of eight unbeaten teams remaining and have today off before playing the Seattle Studs, the tournament runner-up last year and in 2008, on Sunday. The time of the game has not been scheduled yet.
Peninsula has won the World Series three times -- 1994, 1993 and 1977.
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