Miners Sweep DH, hope for 2 on Tuesday

To say that Monday was an interesting day is a bit of an understatement here in Fairbanks.  First of all, since it's been a while, let's catch up on what exactly happened since we got here.

Clayton Ehlert started the first game of the series Sunday night.  He got through 5 innings without so much as a hiccup.  Heading into the 6th the Miners led 5-0 behind RBI efforts by each of the 3-4-5-6 hitters and Nick Croce.  James Ramsey had a solo homer in the 4th and was 2-3 on the game.  DJ Gentile and Jonathan Cisneros also had 2 hits and Shane Brown had 1.

Ehlert lasted through 2 outs in the 6th after giving up 3 runs to the Fire, and AIA got one more in the 7th.  That's when the rain started.  Both teams got through the 8th inning scoreless, but after one pitch in the 9th, the umps called the game.  At the time we thought it was official.

League rules, though, stipulate that each game be finished.  And because of another rule saying each team can only play at most 2 games per day, we were forced to hold off on the 9th inning until Tuesday.

MEANWHILE, the Miners had 2 more dominant efforts Monday in both games of the doubleheader.  They were 7 inning games.  In the early matchup, the Miners used 7 walks from Fire starter Cameron Heath to build a 7 run lead after 3 innings with only 3 hits.  The game didn't get much closer and a Shane Brown homerun in the 7th put the Miners in front 13-4 and the game ended 13-7.  RL Eisenbach improved to 3-0 with the Miners and still has a miniscule sub-2.5 ERA.

The nightcap took a little longer to get going offensively.  Both teams were scoreless through 5 innings.  Will Musson made his first start of the summer for the Miners and threw 5, striking out 3.  Chad Marshall picked up the game's first RBI, followed by a 2 RBI 2B by Nick Cox that turned into another run (Cox scored on the same play after advancing to 3rd on the throw home and scoring on an error).  That'd be all the Miners needed, but Jonathan Cisneros blasted a 2-run homer in the 7th inning.  Mat-Su won 6-1 to sweep both games.

With the wins, the Miners moved into first place by 1.5 games over the Bucs, with a half game still up for grabs if the 9th inning stays as is.  The teams will finish the game at 6:30, followed directly after by the originally scheduled game.  Justin Kraft starts the 9-inning affair and you can hear it all here.

As promised, the picture above is of Growden Memorial Field, home to the Fire and Panners.  The Miners are here until July 4.

First road trip gives 2 more wins

They weren't long trips–just under an hour to Anchorage and back each night–but the Miners made more great strides in their 2 games in the city.  Going into the road trip, Mat-Su held onto 3rd place in the Alaska Baseball League standings.  The Bucs were in first by 1 game over the Miners, and the Pilots pulling into 2nd by a half game.

Justin Kraft (Centenary) made his first start in the first road game against the Pilots.  Head Coach Russell Raley said before the game that he'd be working on getting a solid rotation because of the lack of off days in the immediate future.  Kraft certainly made a case for himself, as he held the Pilots to 1 ER over 6 innings, while striking out 5 and only letting up 3 hits.

On the offensive end it was a quiet night for the Miners, but a bases-loaded single from DJ Gentile in the 1st inning provided the lone scoring for Mat-Su.  After notching the 2 runs in the first, the Miners went scoreless the rest of the night.  For the first time, the valley's own were caught up in a pitchers duel.  But 3 spotless innings of relief from the bullpen held the lead and Ryan Cole (St. John's) picked up his 5th save of the summer.

Other notables at the plate included James Ramsey (Florida St., 2-5, R), Scott Arthur (Texas A&M, 1-4, R) and Jonathan Johnson (Loyola Marymount, 1-3).  With the win the Miners moved into sole possession of 2nd place.

Thursday night's game against the league-leading Bucs had a similar ring to it.  The Miners again had an early outbreak—this time in the 3rd inning—then the bats fell silent.  Mat-Su loaded the bases in the 3rd before Ramsey hit a bases clearing double.  Ramsey (2-4, R, 3 RBI) scored on Shane Brown's (Central Florida) single in the same frame.

The Miners didn't score from then on, but didn't need to.  David Stilley (Washington St) was back to form, throwing 6.67 innings, striking out 6 and only giving up 1 ER (3 total).  But by the time he left, some fielding blunders let the Bucs back into the game.  The bullpen was solid again, though, between Connor Hulse (Harvard), Owen Dew (Seminole CC) and Estevan Uriegas (Texas A&M).  Since the closer Cole was unavailable (threw 2 straight nights), Uriegas came in and shut the door for his first save this summer.

With the win the Miners moved into 1st place in the ABL with another matchup with the Bucs on Thursday (7 p.m., 6:45 pregame show).  Sam Murphy will start for the Miners in the team's last home game in the month of June.  After a day off Saturday, Mat-Su heads on a week-long road trip to Fairbanks to play the Fire and Panners.

Miners Bounce Back to Win 5-1 over Glacier Pilots

After a come from behind win against the Fire and then a disappoiting 10-3 loss two days ago to the Pilots, the Miners gave the Glacier Pilots a little taste of their own medicine in this one.  Though the Pilots only lost by 4, they were never really in it after the 2^nd inning.

The play on the mound was yet again solid for the Miners.  The pitchers got in a few binds but were able to do a good job of pitching out of those jams.  RL Eisenbach picked up the win and pitched very well giving up 5 hits and 0 runs while striking out 7 in his 6 innings of work.  Estevan Uriegas and Owen Dew came in for some middle relief before Ryan Cole came in for his second one out save of the year bringing his save total up to 4 for the summer.

At the plate the Miners were relatively silent except for an outstanding 2^nd inning.  7 of the Miners 8 hits came in that inning with 6 of them being in a row.  The saying “Chicks dig the long ball” might be true, but I dig this type of baseball.  Every hit in that inning except one was a single.  They played simple station to station baseball and did a good job of hitting to the gaps and simply putting the ball where the defenders aren’t.  That inning was pretty baseball.  And the best part is that 6 of the 7 hits were with 2 outs.  So 5 runs scored, 6 people reached on hits in a row all with 2 outs made it one heck of an inning.

This was a good rebound for the Miners because the ABL standings seems to be shaping up a little to show the contenders already.  It looks like the Miners, Bucs and Pilots are looking to be the early front runners.  So picking up a revenge win against the Pilots (a team that last year’s squad went 1-6 against) is big for momentum, confidence and ABL position.

The Miners need another good outing as today they take on the Pilots at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage for their first road game of the season.  Mat-Su is sending Justin Kraft to the mound for his first start of the summer.  The game is set for a 7:00pm first pitch so that means Miners Pregame starts at 6:45.  See you then! 

Interviews Part II

Here are the rest of the interviews we've done so far with many more to come throughout the season.

Musson IN GAME.mp3 -

Cox pregame.mp3 -

Cox in game final_mixdown.mp3 -

Cole PRE.mp3 -

Cole IN GAME.mp3 -

Interviews

If you didn't know, we've be doing a Get to Know the Miners segment on each game broadcast. We feature part of the interview before the game and the rest of the interview in the middle of the next game.  Here are some of the interviews we have done so far.  There will be more to come until we get through each player.

Stilley PRE.mp3 -

Stilley IN GAME.mp3 -

Marshall pregame final.mp3 -

Marshall in game final.mp3 -

Brown gtk pre game.mp3 -

Brown gtk in game.mp3 -

Musson PRE.mp3 -