Sports

Bucs, Pilots begin Alaska Baseball League season with opening night showdown

Let's play three!

The Anchorage Bucs and the Anchorage Glacier Pilots begin the Alaska Baseball League season Friday at Mulcahy Stadium with the first of three straight meetings between the city's longtime rivals.

Both teams will make their season debuts Friday at 7 p.m. On Saturday, they'll play a doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m.

For the Bucs, the three games are the start of eight straight days of baseball. The Pilots get a couple of days off next week before beginning a string of 13 straight days of games.

Those longs stretches between days off is typical in the ABL, a league that gives college players a taste of what it's like to play nearly every day. Between now and the end of the regular season on Aug. 2, the Bucs are scheduled to play 52 games and the Pilots 49.

The league also gives players a chance to swing wood-composite bats instead of the aluminum bats used in college baseball. That makes the ABL a draw for players who have prospects of playing professionally, where wood bats are in use.

Many players come from Division I program. Most are making their first trip to Alaska, although the Bucs and Pilots each have a pitcher from Anchorage on their roster -- Zach Ferntheil of East Georgia State for the Bucs and Dalton Chapman of Everett Community College for the Pilots.

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Leading the Bucs this season is manager Mike Grahovac, who last season led the Fairbanks Goldpanners to the ABL championship. Darren Westergard for another season as the Pilots head coach.

The ABL season began Tuesday with the first of two straight games between the Chugiak Chinooks and Mat-Su Miners. The Miners won both, 5-4 and 8-5. The six-team league also includes the Goldpanners and the Peninsula Oilers.

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