Alaska Baseball

Miners earn back-to-back Alaska Baseball League titles

For the second straight season, the Mat-Su Miners are champions of the Alaska Baseball League.

After dropping Game 1 on Friday, the Miners defeated the Anchorage Bucs twice Saturday to win the best-of-3 ABL Top of the World Series in their fifth consecutive appearance.

Andy Thomas drove in Austin Bull in the third inning for the go-ahead run in a 7-1 Miners' championship victory.

In Game 2, the Miners poured on nine runs in the eighth inning to run away with the win, 13-3.

Bull's big bat boosted the Miners in both Saturday wins. The infielder from Grand Canyon University went 5 of 6 at the plate with a team-high four runs through the two games.

[Rewind: Miners top Oilers to win 2016 ABL playoffs]

He went 2 of 3 with a walk and two runs and Thomas tallied two RBIs and a run in the championship game.

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Leading 2-1 through three innings, the Miners added three runs in the fifth and two runs in the sixth to cushion their lead.

Miners pitcher Payton Robinson allowed one run and three hits through five innings and struck out four to earn the win.

The Bucs' lone run came from Jace VanDeBrake on a Todd Lott RBI in the third.

The Miners were also the ABL regular season champs with a 30-14 record heading into the playoffs — six games ahead of the second-place Bucs.

Last season, the Miners topped the Oilers in two games to win their first Top of the World Series since 2010.

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