PALMER -- Coming around third base, Matthew Inouye could feel his legs tightening and his heart racing. There was an inside-the-park home run on the line, and Inouye's body was telling him to slow down.
"I was hoping my third-base coach would give me the stop sign," Inouye said.
He thought he was dead meat. And he was right.
Inouye's bid for one of baseball's most unlikely feats failed miserably -- he was thrown out by a mile -- but it didn't matter much Friday night as the Mat-Su Miners cruised to a 7-2 nonleague victory over the California Victory Dons at Hermon Brothers Field.
Inouye, a speedy outfielder from the University of Hawaii, didn't come up completely empty. He banged out two triples and drove in four runs to pace the Miners (3-1), who beat the Dons of Ukiah, Calif., for a second straight night.
It was also another evening of Mat-Su pitchers overwhelming their visitors, who fell to 0-2 on a 10-game tour of the Alaska Baseball League. Miners starter Koley Kolberg tossed five shutout innings before leaving after a set pitch count. On Thursday, teammate Brian Bach tossed seven innings of zeros in a 6-1 win.
Miners catcher Matt Eichel worked behind the dish for Kolberg and Bach and said both guys mixed lively fastballs with nasty breaking stuff. Kolberg, Eichel said, controlled the batter's box by keeping the Dons guessing.
Kolberg, a 6-foot-1 lanky right-hander from Navarro Junior College in Texas, struck out five batters, including three looking.
"He's got an overpowering fastball and a real good curveball," Eichel said. "Having two strikeout pitches makes you a dangerous pitcher."
The Miners will be a dangerous team if they keep swinging the bats the way they are. If nothing else, at least they're making hitting coach Mitch Gregg appear to be a recruiting genius. Mat-Su knocked around three of the five pitchers used by the Dons for seven hits and seven runs.
Ryan Beglin, Jeff Butts and Inouye each had two hits, although Inouye had the big night. His two triples matched his total at school -- in 122 fewer at-bats, to boot. Inouye cleared the bases in the third inning with a two-out triple to the left-center field gap. The extra-base hit pushed the lead to 4-0.
In the seventh, Inouye roped a drive to straight away center that seemed to surprise outfielder Jack Ryser, who came in at first before realizing the ball was going to be over his head. Ryser did well to get to the ball after nearly falling down and began an 8-6-2 relay that easily got a streaking Inouye by a few steps at the plate.
"I was out of gas, man," Inouye said. "My legs were dead."
The Miners made it 6-0 in the sixth with a pair of runs fueled by errors and an RBI double by Butts. The Dons committed three errors in the inning, including two by relief pitcher Phillip Tyson on wild pick-off attempts to first base. Both times the throws allowed Mat-Su base runners to go all the way to third base, and one time he threw over when nobody was covering the base.
On top of the solid pitching and hitting the Miners have received, they have had some players flash the leather in the field as well. Eichel showed off his cannon arm by gunning down another base runner attempting to steal second. On Thursday he threw out a runner by six feet, but Friday he needed help as shortstop Josh Mader snared a short hop and applied the tag just in time.
"It takes off a lot of pressure knowing I don't have to be perfect," Eichel said. "Those guys up the middle have good hands."
Daily News reporter Van Williams can be reached at vwilliams@adn.com or 907-257-4335.
DONS ab r h bi MINERS ab r h bi
Weems ss 3 0 0 0 Young lf 3 1 1 0
Garcia ss 1 1 1 0 Butts cf 5 0 2 1
Guiliano 2b 2 0 1 0 Mader ss 3 1 0 0
Martinz ph 1 0 0 0 Beglin 3b 3 2 2 1
Nichols ph 0 0 0 0 Inouye rf 4 0 2 4
Harris 3b 3 1 1 1 Turner 1b 4 1 0 0
Flowrs lf/1b 3 0 0 1 Kelly 2b/p 4 0 0 0
Hyman dh 3 0 0 0 Noles dh/lf 4 1 1 0
Thmpsn dh 1 0 0 0 Eichel c 2 0 0 0
Waninger rf 3 0 0 0 Munich ph 1 1 1 0
Lane 1b 2 0 0 0
D'Arrigo 2b 2 0 0 0
Ryser cf 4 0 2 0
Jones c 1 0 0 0
Capone c 1 0 0 0
Totals 30 2 5 2 Totals 33 7 9 6
California Dons 000 000 020--2
Mat-Su Miners 004 002 10x--7
E -- Kolberg, Kelly, Weems, Guiliano, Tyson. LOB -- Dons 6, Minbers 7. 2B -- Guiliano, Ryser, Butts. 3B -- Inouye 2, Harris. S -- Inouye, Flowers.
Dons ip h r er bb so
Hernandz 2 1 0 0 0 0
Bowers, L 12/3 3 4 4 2 2
Tyson 21/3 2 2 2 2 3
Buenrostro 1 2 1 1 0 2
Thompson 1 1 0 0 0 2
Miners ip h r er bb so
Kolberg, W, 1-0 5 3 0 0 2 5
Johnson 3 2 2 2 0 2
Kelly 1 0 0 0 0 0
WP -- Thompson. PB -- Munich. HBP -- Bowers (Young), Kolberg (Waninger). Umpires -- Plate, Hennins; First, Raphael. T-- 2:23. A -- 300.
