Anchorage Daily News

Mat-Su Miners general manager Pete Christopher, 55, sucked in his gut and adjusted the belt on his sparkling white Miners uniform.

He adjusted his helmet, rested the bat on his shoulder and dug in to face Andrew Ward, a 20-something pitcher for the Anchorage Adult League All-Stars.

Up in the press box at Hermon Brothers Field, Christopher's 13-year-old son Kevin couldn't hide his embarrassment.

"Oh my god. Oh my god!" he squealed. Good thing the microphone wasn't on.

Christopher fell behind 0-2 in the count but drew a big cheer for fouling off a high fastball. He worked the count full. Then Ward, a former Miner, threw a fastball high and outside. Christopher checked his swing and froze, almost falling over the plate.

No signal from the umpire; Christopher trotted to first base with a walk.

"The last time I pulled on a uniform? Eight years. Corvallis, Oregon, adult league," Christopher said after his two-inning stint in right field.

To break a lengthy losing streak, sometimes a lazy night at the ballpark is just what is needed.

The Mat-Su Miners, losers of five straight Alaska Baseball League matchups entering Friday's game, thought a night against the Adult League All-Stars, a late substitute after the Taiwan national team had to depart early from Alaska, was perfect.

But as one inning rolled into the next, and still no one could score, the Miners started to sweat. The All-Stars might have looked like a fill-in team serving the function of the Washington Generals, with their different colored batting helmets. But they were no chumps.

Nick Nading and Ty Clapper, both former Anchorage Bucs, were on the team. Ward pitched briefly with the Miners in 2005.

So despite the air of a no-stress night at the park -- Christopher's son, Keith, the Miners bullpen catcher, started the game, and Miners pitching coach Ryan Heil pitched the eighth -- the Miners found themselves in a dogfight. And the All-Stars took the game seriously -- so seriously that one batter was thrown out for arguing a called strike with the home plate umpire.

Finally, in the eighth inning and the Miners clinging to a one-run lead, Jason Erickson -- a pitcher, no less -- ended it when he crushed a solo home run to left center field.

Miners 3, All-Stars 1.

"We were taking it real serious, until the pitchers got into the field," said Keith Christopher, who just graduated from Palmer High.

Christopher said "my jaw dropped to my chest" when he learned he would start. The bullpen catcher all season, Christopher spends most of his time doing field maintenance.

He looked nervous -- his first throw back to Miners starter Andrew Berger fell short of the mound and bounced up from the dirt. And Christopher's errant throw in the sixth allowed All-Stars catcher Willie Paul to score from third, tying the game 1-1.

"I was thinking, 'I just cost my team a run,' " he said.

But Christopher was solid at the plate. He walked, reached on an error and popped out. And after the game he got plenty of congratulatory slaps from teammates.

"It felt great. We had a lot of fun," said Christopher, who will go to the University of Idaho in the fall on an academic scholarship. "I took my lumps. I took a foul ball to the shoulder, a foul ball to the gut."

The Miners scored first when Will Musson walked in the fifth and later scored on an All-Stars throwing error.

After the All-Stars tied it, the Miners went up 2-1 in the sixth on Pat Minogue's sacrifice fly.

That set the stage for Erickson's bomb. Erickson, a standout pitcher from the University of Washington and a member of the Miners last season, didn't even have his uniform on to start the game. He ran back to the locker room and grabbed teammate Charles Ruiz's jersey and entered the game in the eighth.

At 400 feet to center field, Hermon Brothers is one of the largest fields in the ABL. But Erickson's swing left no doubt. He crushed the ball over the fence in left center and trotted home to high-fiving teammates.

The Miners got back to business Saturday evening against the Anchorage Bucs.

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