Alaska Baseball

Bucs end Mat-Su’s season to set up all-Anchorage finale in Alaska Baseball League

The Top of the World Series begins Monday at Mulcahy Stadium with a second straight showdown between the Anchorage Bucs and the Anchorage Glacier Pilots.

The Bucs set up the all-Anchorage finale by crushing the regular-season Alaska Baseball League champion Mat-Su Miners 13-3 Sunday. The game was the third in a best-of-3 first-round series at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.

The Pilots swept the Chugiak Chinooks in the other playoff series.

The Bucs overwhelmed the Miners on Sunday afternoon behind a five-hit, five-RBI day from Woody Hadeen and a three-hitter from pitchers JoJo Ingrassia and Zach Heaton.

The loss ended a 30-win season for the Miners, who finished 30-13. The Bucs improved to 18-25 and will face a Pilots team that’s 22-20.

The Bucs jumped to a 2-0 lead on Cole Moore’s two-run homer. Mat-Su came back with three runs in the third, including two coming on wild pitches by Ingrassia.

Ingrassia pitched the first four innings. He gave up three runs on two hits and struck out five.

ADVERTISEMENT

Once Heaton entered, it was all over for the Miners. He gave up one hit and struck out eight in five shutout innings.

The Bucs pounded out 13 hits against five Mat-Su pitchers.

They scored five runs in the fifth inning to surge to a 7-3 lead and added two more in the eighth and four in the ninth.

Hadeen, the leadoff batter, banged out five hits, including a three-run triple in the ninth and a two-run single in the fifth. He was 5 for 5 and scored three times.

Monday’s game begins at 7 p.m. The Bucs will be chasing their second straight Top of the World Series title -- in 2019, they beat the Pilots two games to one. There was no season last year because of the pandemic.

ADVERTISEMENT