Brent Diaz and the Peninsula Oilers brightened the home side's spirits on a gloomy Monday night in Kenai with a walk-off Alaska Baseball League win in 12 innings beneath an off-and-on drizzle at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai.
Five Peninsula relievers combined for six hitless innings, with the final firefighter into the mix, Jordan Kron, throwing a scoreless 12th to earn the victory. Kron, a 5-foot-9 righty heading into his sophomore season at the University of California Riverside, hasn't given up a run in 10 innings over seven appearances this summer.
Fans partial to pitching battles were treated to an early punch-up between southpaw starters in Chugiak's Braxton Wilks and the Oilers' Josh Medeles. Wilks, a 6-foot sophomore at McLennan Community College, gave up two hits in eight innings while striking out five against two walks to continue what's becoming a lunker of an ABL summer. By the time he left in lieu of Jason Karkenny with the score tied 0-0 to start the bottom of the ninth, Wilks had improved his season ERA to 0.31 in 29 innings.
Medeles was a worthy adversary for Wilks, giving up a pair of hits in six shutout innings to lower his season ERA to 1.17 in 23 innings.
The game-winning base hit came after Chinooks reliever Travis Stone walked the leadoff hitter, Bennett Oliver, in the bottom of the 12th inning. Ted Boeke sacrificed Oliver to second base, and Stone induced a pop-up by Brian Ruhm to set up Diaz's game-ending dramatics.
The first-place Oilers (10-7) pushed their winning streak to four games while increasing their lead in the ABL's American League to 3.5 over the Anchorage Bucs and four over the Alaska Goldpanners. The Chinooks fell to 10-12.
Pilots 3, Goldpanners 0
Big Will Hibbs continued to cast a long, imposing shadow on opposing hitters Monday night as the 6-foot-7 Texan threw seven scoreless innings to lead the Anchorage Glacier Pilots to a 3-0 ABL win over the Alaska Goldpanners at Mulcahy Stadium.
Hibbs, a Friendswood, Texas, native who is entering his junior year at Lamar University, improved to 2-0 this season with a 0.39 ERA, 17 strikeouts and seven walks in 23 innings.
Jack Labosky went 2 for 4 with an RBI for the Pilots, who improved to 8-11 in the ABL. The Goldpanners dropped to 5-10 in the league.
Miners 5, Bucs 2
The Mat-Su Miners continued to strike ABL gold Monday, improving their league-best record to 16-5 with a 5-3 win over the Anchorage Bucs at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.
Heading into Tuesday's games, the Miners held a 6.5-game lead over the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks in the ABL's National League.
Nyles Nygaard went 2 for 3 with two RBIs for the mashing Miners, who also got two hits from Brick Paskiewicz, Tyler Wolfe and Alex Caruso. Through Monday, the Miners had three of the top five hitters in the ABL, with Matt Diorio hitting .411 to lead the summertime circuit, followed by Paskiewicz (.377) in fourth and Caruso (.364) fifth.
The Bucs fell to 6-10, 3.5 games behind the Peninsula Oilers in the American League.
For more information, including complete league stats, standings and schedules, visit alaskabaseballleague.org
ABL Standings (through Monday, July 7)
American League
Peninsula Oilers 10 7
Anchorage Bucs 6 10
Alaska Goldpanners 5 10
National League
Mat-Su Miners 16 5
Chugiak Chinooks 10 12
Anchorage Glacier Pilots 8 11