The Anchorage Bucs are on top of the world after winning their first Alaska Baseball League championship since the 90s.
The Bucs won the best-of-three Top of the World Series by beating the Mat-Su Miners 2-0 Tuesday night with a masterful performance by pitcher Jim Voyles in the third game of the championship series at Palmer's Hermon Brothers Field.
The Bucs took the first game in 12 innings on Monday night, 6-2. The Miners scraped out a 4-3 win Tuesday afternoon to force a third game.
The series was a showdown between a team that dominated all season and a team that got hot halfway through the season.
The Miners were a force from the start, going 34-11 during the regular season to sail to the league's National League pennant.
The Bucs caught fire around the season's halfway point. They were 17-5-1 in their final 23 regular-season games to win the American League title and take a 27-21 record into the series with the Miners.
The Bucs finished 29-22 overall; the Miners were 35-13.
The championship is the first ABL title for the Bucs since 1998, when they were co-champions with the Peninsula Oilers. The Bucs last won a league title outright in 1996.
In the Bucs' 2-0 win in Tuesday's final game, Voyles faced 30 batters, just three over the minimum. He scattered four hits, struck out three, walked one and got a boost from his defense, which turned three double plays.
Third baseman Zane Gurwitz, Anchorage's No. 9 batter, had a hand in both runs.
In the second inning, he singled to drive in Sam Brown, who led off with a single and advanced on a walk and sacrifice bunt.
In the seventh inning, he hit a leadoff single, took second on a sacrifice bunt, stole third and scored on a passed ball.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Miners took a 4-3 win to force a third game.
The Bucs led 1-0 on Brown's RBI single in the second, but Mat-Su took the lead for good with two runs in the seventh. The Miners racked up four hits, including doubles by Matt Diorio and Hunter Simmons, that inning.
Mat-Su added two more runs in the top of the ninth to stretch its lead to 4-1, scoring on a single by Simmons and a double by Connor Wanhanen.
The Bucs threatened to tie things in the bottom of the inning.
McCarthy Tatum was hit by a pitch and Andrew Montoya singled to give the Bucs two baserunners with two outs. Grant Palmer singled to drive in Tatum, and Stephan Trosclair reached base when Mat-Su's catcher dropped a third strike.
With the bases loaded, Taylor Jones was hit by a pitch to make it 4-3, but Brenn Conrad flew out to left field to strand all three runners and end the game.
On Monday, the Bucs won 6-2 in a game that was scoreless through 11 innings.
The Bucs scored all of their runs in the top of the 12th, scoring on Conrad's RBI single, David Banuelos' two-run double and Brodie Leftridge's two-run triple. Three walks, a Mat-Su error and a dropped third strike aided Anchorage's rally.
The Miners scored twice in the bottom of the 12th courtesy of Jake Schleppenbach's two-run single.
In a game that lasted 3 hours, 30 minutes, Bucs starter Aaron Soto and Miners starter Eli Morgan were nearly untouchable, though neither received a decision.
Soto (6-1), a left-hander from Tennessee, pitched nine scoreless innings, scattering eight hits and lowering his season earned-run average to 0.75. He threw 120 pitches before giving way to Austen Zimarik, who went two scoreless innings for the win and threw 18 of his 23 pitches for strikes.
Morgan (5-0), a right-hander from Gonzaga, threw 100 pitches over 6.2 scoreless innings and dropped his ERA to 0.73.