Sports

Miners collect 30th baseball win by edging Chinooks

The Mat-Su Miners won for the 30th time this season Friday when they held off Chugiak 3-2 in an Alaska Baseball League game at Palmer's Hermon Brothers Field.

The Chinooks had runners at first and second with one out in the top of the ninth, but relief pitcher Brick Paskiewicz escaped the jam by getting a fielder's choice and a strikeout.

Paskiewicz earned a save for his one inning of pitching, although he played all nine innings. He was 2 for 4 and scored a run while playing right field for the Miners.

The win moved Mat-Su to 30-8 on the season and 27-7 in league play. None of the other five teams in the league have even hit the 20-win mark in league play.

Conner Menez, who gave up eight hits in eight innings, took the loss for the Chinooks (15-23 overall, 14-20 ABL).

In Friday's other games, the Anchorage Bucs stopped the Peninsula Oilers 5-2 in Kenai and the Anchorage Glacier Pilots clobbered the Fairbanks Goldpanners 10-1 in Fairbanks.

The Bucs broke a 1-1 tie by scoring three runs in the sixth inning at Coral Seymour Memorial Park.

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They roughed up relief pitcher Shane Ennis, who had a nightmare appearance that lasted two-thirds of an inning. Ennis put four of the six batters he faced on base. Two reached on base hits, one was hit by a pitch and one reached on an error by Ennis.

With two on and none out, Ennis commited two errors on the same play to allow two runs to score. Two outs later he yielded an RBI single that chased him from the game and gave the Bucs (21-19, 17-14) all the runs they needed to beat the Oilers (16-22, 14-17).

Quin Grogan pitched a complete game for the Bucs, scattering seven hits and fanning eight.

In Fairbanks, the Glacier Pilots got a huge boost from the top of the order. Their top three batters in the order were a combined 7 for 15, collected seven hits, scored seven runs and drove in four.

Luke Hamblin was 2 for 5 with three runs, Justin Novak was 3 for 5 with two RBIs and Jack Anderson was 3 for 5 with two RBIs and three runs.

Kyle Watson was 2 for 4 with three RBIs for the Pilots (23-18, 18-16).

Drake Robison handcuffed the Goldpanners (12-25, 7-23), striking out eight and allowing four hits in nine innings.

On Sunday, the Bucs take on the Goldpanners at 5 p.m. at Mulcahy Stadium and the Chinooks host the Oilers at 4 p.m. at Loretta French Sports Complex.

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