Mat-SU Miners

It's Award Season

2009-07-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

The Miners can taste an ABL Championship coming down the stretch. Mat-Su needs a win plus a Bucs loss tonight to clinch to title outright. But even in the midst of the race some individuals are getting some recognition.

At the team banquet last weekend, GM Pete Christopher gave out the teams awards as voted on by the coaches and the Mat-Su Miners executive board:

Best Position Player: Jonathan Johnson, Loyola Marymount (2B)- .323 avg., 9 RBI, 5 2B, 2 3B, 20 BB, .444 OBA

Best Pitcher: Justin Kraft, Centenary- 3-1, 6 GS, 1.14 ERA, 47.1 IP, 32 K, .186 Opp Avg.

Team MVP: James Ramsey, Florida St.- .323 avg., 1 HR, 23 RBI, 12 2B, 33 BB, .460 SLG

Stan Zaborac (Overall team spirit): Will Musson, Eastern Connecticut St.

Meanwhile, the league all-star team was announced before the game today. 3 of the 4 Miners listed above are also representatives there: Johnson, Ramsey and Kraft were honored on the team. Johnson picked up the ABL Gold Glove Award as well and Head Coach Russell Raley was named ABL Coach of the Year. Here's the rest of the team:

C- Austin Barnes, Bucs

1B- Ben Minard, AIA

2B- Jonathan Johnson, Miners AND Gunner Glad, Pilots

SS- Justin Schafer, Goldpanners

3B- Jason Martinson, Bucs

OF- James Ramsey, Miners AND Drew Heid, Pilots AND Brian Bello, Bucs

DH- Andrew Pollack, Goldpanners

SP- Justin Kraft, Miners AND Logan Darnell, Pilots AND Ryan Carpenter, Pilots AND Ryan Millard, AIA AND Cody Kendall, Oilers

RP- Kevin Jacob, Bucs AND Kyle Brule, Goldpanners AND DJ Mauldin, Pilots

Player of the Year- Drew Heid, Pilots

Top Prospect- Kevin Jacob, Bucs

Gold Glove- Jonathan Johnson, Miners

Silver Slugger- Drew Heid, Pilots

Coach of the Year- Russell Raley, Miners

We'll have more reaction to this in the coming days and on tonight's broadcast, which you can hear starting at 5:50 AK time.

7/25 Miners vs. Bucs Canceled

2009-07-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

As you may have guessed by the of a game on the web tonight, tonight's game was called because of the rain. We're still waiting on the official word on tomorrow's game(s) but we do know a little info that we can pass along.

The schedules down the stretch for both the Miners and Bucs doesn't really coincide with any off days until the end of the MLB Showcase. Either way, we'll be having a doubleheader tomorrow starting at 2 p.m.:

Miners vs. Pilots (as scheduled) at 2 p.m.
Miners vs. Bucs (makeup) shortly after.

The length of the games (innings) is still to be determined.

We'll let you know when we know more about the situation.

Miners Ride Momentum from Kenai

2009-07-24T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Miners won 4 of 5 down in Kenai to improve to 14-4 on the road so far this summer. Their problem has been playing at home.

They dropped the first home game back from Kenai against the Oilers. They just could not find a key hit in order to pull out a win. David Stilley had the best peformance of his career going 9 innings and only giving up 1 unearned run. This was the 2nd time this season a Miners pitcher has gone 9 without giving up an earned run and both time the Miners lost and both times it was to the Oilers.

Luckily they found the bats for the next 2 games. They took advantage of 9 walks from the Fire pitchers in order to blow them away to keep up their winning streak against the AIA. They then had a game for sole posession of first place the next day against the Bucs. The Miners first 5 guys in the order started the game by only failing to reach base once in each of their first 2 plate appearances. That helped them score 3 runs in each of the first 2 innings and ride that 6 run lead to the W. The Bucs tried to post a comeback but fell short 9-5.

So the Miners are a game ahead of the Bucs for first but finish out the year with 6 of their last 8 games against the two other contenders, the Bucs & Pilots. They head down to Anchorage for 3 straight games down there. A lot will be decided in the ABL race after those three games.

Mat-Su Pulls Out a Nail Biter From Behind

2009-07-09T00:02:00.000-07:00

The Miners got behind early but showed off some late clutch 2 out hits to pull out a victory against the fire 7-6. This win kept them 4-4 in the last 8 and kept them from losing back-to-back games for the first time all summer.

The Fire showed off hot bats early putting up 5 runs in the first three innings. But as soon as their bats cooled off, the Miners' bats caught on. Trevor Costin (Long Beach City) stepped into his first at bat with the Miners and doubled to lead off the 3rd inning and eventually scored the team's first run. The bats really got going in the 4th with Brown, Cisneros & Marshall all reaching with singles to start things off followed by Jacobs walk. Alleman then stepped in and hit a great sac fly to center. to make it 5-3. Costin got back on base with a walk to make it bases loaded. Cox then had a great at bat and picked up the RBI walk to bring it to 5-4.

It sat at 5-4 for a while giving the feeling that the Miners' bats had cooled off. Then in the 7th, the Miners got things going again. Arthur led off the inning with a single followed by Ramsey's walk and Brown's sac bunt to make it runners on 2nd and 3rd. Cisneros then walked and Marshall flew out to make it bases loaded and 2 outs for Jacobs. Boy did he deliver. A blooper single that scored 2 and gave the Miners their first lead.

The fire tied it at 6-6 in the top of the 8th and in the bottom it was 2 outs and only Cox on first for James Ramsey. Another clutch 2 out hit to the gap in right-center field ended up scoring Cox all the way from 1st after good base running and a better slide. that ended up being the game winner before Atkins got in for his 4th save of the summer.

Only the 2nd come from behind win for the Miners all summer and it couldn't have come at a better time after a disappointing loss yesterday. They definitely know how to rebound.

Recap of the past few days

2009-07-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

Certainly has been a while since the blog was last updated, but here we are back home again for the time being. Down the stretch we’ll probably update in this fashion; it’s a bit irregular, but all the bases will be covered in each and every post.

After a tough July 4^th loss and then the rest of Independence Day on a bus back to Palmer, the Miners took a much-needed day off to recoup for the final month of the season. Heading into the unofficial halfway point (season ends August 3, but the Miners have more than half the games left to be played) the Miners were sitting pretty atop the ABL by 2 games.

Monday’s first game back brought the first meeting with the Kenai Peninsula Oilers, who lead the ABL in pitching but are dead last in batting average. One of those held up in the first game of the series, as the Oilers scattered 5 hits throughout the ballgame. The Miners crushed Kenai in the first one, 12-2. R.L. Eisenbach struck out 8 in his 3^rd win of the season. At the plate, Jonathan Cisneros went 3-4, scored twice and drove in 3 more. James Ramsey and Nick Cox (in his first game back from a finger injury) also had multi hit efforts.

Tuesday was all about the pitchers. Justing Kraft started for the Miners and had the best outing of any Miner this summer. He threw 9 scoreless innings, striking out 5. Unfortunately, Oilers starter Crosby Slaught was just a good, throwing 8 scoreless. The game went into extras as neither team scored in the first 9 frames. After loading the bases in the top of the 11^th, a tight strike zone caused Jeremy Atkins to walk in the go-ahead and eventual game-winning run. Estevan Uriegas got credit for the loss after giving up 2 straight hits to start the inning. Kenai took the 2^nd game 2-0. After the loss, the Miners fell to only 2 games up (Monday’s win put the team up 3), as both the Bucs and Pilots won.

The AIA Fire (last in the ABL) come to Palmer Wednesday for a one-game set then another day off. David Stilley makes another appearance for the Miners tonight on the mound. Game time at 7 p.m, Miners pregame starts at 6:45 right here.

Longest Game from Start to Finish & 1st Game to Extras

2009-07-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

For the 2nd straight day, the Miners get two W's. They made up the 9th inning of the game started 2 days earlier because it was postponed due to rain. Jeremy Atkins came in and made quick work of the Fire lineup only allowing 1 base runner to solidify the 5-4 victory in that one.

Little did the Miners know that another close one was coming. The Miners broke open the scorebook as they so often do with a DJ Gentile 2 run homer in the 4th inning. The day before a questionable call by the ump took back one of his homers, but there was no question about this one. You could tell as soon as the ball hit the bat that it was gone.

But the Miners continued to struggle putting up runs in the late innings and allowing the Fire to tie up the ballgame with 2 runs in the 6th. The Fire got a 1 out double and then a wild pitch to get a runner on third. The next batter grounded one to JJ at second and he threw home to try to prevent the run and his throw was off the mark. Another well placed ground out scored a runner from third later that inning to bring it to the 2-2 mark.

The Miners had to go into extra innings as the tie held up through 9. The Miners were quiet in the top half of the 10th with only David Alleman reaching base on a hit by pitch. The Fire posed a little more of a threat in the 10th with the lead off hitter reaching on an error from Shane Brown and getting over to 2nd with a one out walk to the batter.

So the scene was set with runners on 1st & 2nd and only 1 out for the Fire's 2-hole hitter Brian Kolb. Kolb struck a hard ball into deep center field, but Nick Cox made an amazing diving catch and got it to 2nd base for the double play because the runner did not tag. This was a web gem if I ever saw one with how far Cox had to go just to get to the ball and a great full extension dive to get the out. If that ball would have dropped the runner from 2nd would have easily scored and ended the ball game. Instead, the Miners got out of the jam.

You got the feeling that after that catch the Miners were going to win it. And they made quick work of Fire reliever Bradley Kidd in the top of the 11th. Cisneros started the inning off with a lead off walk and had Ryan Cole pinch run for him. Chad Marshall then laid down a great bunt that hit the dirt in front of the plate and just stopped. The pitcher was not able to get there in time to make the throw as Marshall reached on the bunt single. Bobby Jacobs then stepped up and laid down another good bunt. Kidd got their in time but made a bad throw to 3rd that ended up in the outfield and allowed Cole to score from 3rd and advance the runners to 2nd and 3rd. The Miners still had no outs and followed up the series of nice bunts with 2 well placed sac flies by Newalu and Cox to the deep parts of the outfield to score 2 more runs.

The 3 runs off of only 1 hit won it for the Miners as Atkins stepped in to get his 2nd save of the day in the bottom of the 11th. The first extra inning ball game was as close as it gets to going down as an L but a grat play in the field and heads up bunting and base running gave the Miners the 4 game sweep of the Fire.

Next game for the Miners is against a Goldpanners squad that has been playing much better recently and is climbing up the ABL standings.

Miners Sweep DH, hope for 2 on Tuesday

2009-06-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-26T16:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

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 -

Miners Use Power to get Past AIA Fire 4-2

2009-06-18T19:24:00.001-07:00

The 4-2 score does not show how much of a nail biter this one ended up. In the top of the 9th the Fire had their best offensive inning of the night. Relief pitcher Ryan Cole got the first two batters to fly out, but then 3 straight base runners gave the Fire the bases loaded with 2 outs. Brian Kolb was then due up for the visiting Athletes in Action after already going 2-4 before this at bat. Cole finished things off in dramatic fashion getting Kolb to pop out to third baseman Chad Marshall to pick up his 2nd save of the summer.

The Miners got their run production in a very different way than normal. Before this game, Mat-Su has done a great job playing small ball and station-to-station baseball to put runs up on the board. Last night they relied on the power in the heart of the lineup. Jonathan Cisneros got things started as he "went yaya" as his family said in the Miners Chat. The 2 run jack was the first for any Miner yet this summer and scored Shane Brown as well to give the Miners a 2-0 lead in the 4th.

The Fire responded in the 6th with a run of their own, but the Miners' big bats were not done. After Cisneros' lead off walk, DJ Gentile sent one over the wall the other way to move it to the 4 Mat-Su finished with.

Coach Raley mentioned the strength of this squad is now its depth with all but 2 players up here and it showed in this one. For the first time, the Miners were locked in a pitchers duel. They could not advance many runners past 2nd base. The power they used to cover up the lack of runners in scoring positions shows to me that this team can now win a game in many different ways. This will definitely pay off when the rest of the season pans out.

Miners take 4th straight

2009-06-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

Another game, another win and the Miners continue to roll through the early stages of the schedule. A bump in the road to open the year against the Bucs didn’t stop Mat-Su from exacting its revenge. Another strong outing from the Miners starter led to a 6-3 win.

So far it’s seems that whoever Head Coach Russell Raley has thrown out there has succeeded. The win for Clayton Ehlert (Texas A&M) marks the 4^th straight victory for a Miners starting pitcher, in addition to the team. Ehlert, who came off a rough start in the final game of Texas A&M’s NCAA Tournament, threw 6 scoreless innings. He only gave up 2 hits and struck out 5. The only runs came off relievers Will Musson and Estevan Uriegas.

The Miners raked at the plate as well. DJ Gentile brought some extra pop to the middle of the order. In his first game, the 43^rd round pick of the Indians went 2-3 with 2 RBIs and scored a run. The 3-4-5 hitters (Shane Brown, Jonathan Cisneros and Gentile) accounted for 6 of the 12 Miners hits, 4 of the runs, and 4 more RBIs. Nick Cox (Columbia) also had another stellar game, hitting 3-4 with 2 RBI.

The Miners have another day off Tuesday before hosting the AIA Fire Wednesday night. Game time is again set for 7 p.m. Miners pregame hits the air at 6:45 right here. The preliminary starting pitcher for the Miners is R.L. Eisenbach.

10-3 Blowout Means 3rd Straight W for Miners

2009-06-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

The Miners jumped on the Oregon Black Sox early and often in this one to pull to a 3-1 mark on the year. Mat-Su scored a run in each of their first 5 innings including 5 runs in the 3rd.

The 3rd started with two straight walks at the top of the order for Scott Arthur (Texas A&M) and David Alleman (Texas A&M). Shane Brown (Central Florida) batted forward all the runners a base with a single. Cleanup hitter Jonathan Ciseneros (St. Mary's) then got a groundout to the right side of the field and picked up an RBI when Alleman scored. Blake Newalu (Chipola CC) then got the third walk of the inning for the Miners before Chad Marshall (Stony Brook) cleared the bases with his second triple of the summer. Nick Cox then reached on a fielder's choice, but picked up the RBI as Marshall made a nice slide to avoid the tag at home. Nick Croce (Hawaii), Jonathan Johnson (Loyola Marymount) and Arthur rounded out the inning making it the first time this season the Miners batted around in an inning.

The Miners also got a good game on the mound. Jeremy Atkins (Lafayette) picked up the win pitching 7 innings while only giving up 2 runs (1 earned) and striking out 2. He did not pitch for strikeouts but got a lot of guys ground or fly into easy outs. He entered the 7th inning having thrown only 66 pitches to that point. Will Musson (Eastern Connecticut) saw his first action on the rubber after playing DH the previous 3 games. RL Eisenbach (Lubbock Christian) finished things off in the 9th also throwing his first pitches in ABL baseball.

The Miners had a 7-0 lead after the 3rd and ere never threatened from then on out by the Black Sox. What's surprising is how much success the Black Sox had against other ABL teams and how well Mat-Su took care of them. The Black Sox were previously 3-1 against ABL teams with their only loss coming 1-0 to a team they beat 7-0 the day before. The Miners played by far their best baseball of the year against this squad.

Every single Miner got on base with 7 guys scoring a run and 6 picking up RBIs. It's hard to pick standouts on a team that had so much offensive success and so little trouble winning, but here are a few of the headliners. Marshall went 1-2 with his triple and picked up 3 RBIs on the game. Brown, Cisneros, and Newalu eached picked up 2 hits, scored a run and got an RBI on the evening. Nick Cox (Columbia) only went 1-4 but scored 2 runs and batted in 2 runners. It is hard not to just list the box score with how well this team played.

Next up for the Miners is a revenge game against the Anchorage Bucs. They lost to the Bucs 8-5 in the season opener. Another league win to add to the 1-1 ABL record will do a good thing for this team coming off 3 very good performances from many different players.

Mat-Su Miners Pregame will be at 6:45 and the first pitch will follow at 7:00.

Make sure to check out matsuminers.org for the broadcast, stats and photos of the team throughout the season.

Miners' Morning March

2009-06-14T17:18:00.000-07:00

Day Off? What day off? The team didn't have a baseball game Saturday, but that didn't mean the Miners had a free day. The Colony Days parade was tinted green with the Miners sandwiched in between MTA (Matanuska Telephone) and the fire department.

So the players marched and had an earful of sirens throughout the morning.

"It's great," P/DH Will Musson said. "It's nice to have that support from the town and walking in that parade, you feel like a professional. I like the fans up here and the people are great."

"Moose" marched for the 2nd year with the club. A great deal of the players marched in a parade for the first time. But the day didn't end there. With Fred Meyer day Sunday at the ballpark, the players had the daunting task of roaming the Palmer and Wasilla stores to give out free tickets to the game (which ended up being rescheduled from 2 p.m. to 7). Stay tuned to see how many of those free tickets are actually used during the game.

Miners Roll for 2nd Straight

2009-06-13T00:34:00.000-07:00

It was cold and rainy, but that didn't prevent the Miners from their first non-league victory of the season. Mat-Su used another good performance from the starting pitcher—this time Mike Carlson—to propel the team to a 7-4 win.

But the bats weren't silent either. Head Coach Russel Raley shuffled around the lineup, moving the Texas A&M duo (Scott Arthur and David Alleman) to the top and relocating Nick Cox and Blake Newalu.

Something clicked.

Arthur had 2 hits and 2 RBI, Alleman had a hit (and another stolen base), Cox went 1-2 with 2 runs and Newalu had 2 hits of his own. And since Nick Croce had the day off behind the plate, that opened up a spot for Jonathan Johnson, who had another good game, adding 2 hits, 2 runs and an RBI. Johnson started off the scoring in the 3rd after leading off with a single and scoring on Shane Brown's single. The Miners scored twice in an inning three times during the game.

The pitching front was solid again. Carlson got the win with 5.1 IP, 1 ER and 2 K. Connor Hulse pitched 2.2 spotless innings of relief and left with 2 outs in the 9th after letting up 2 runs. Ryan Cole came in for the final out and notched his first save of the summer.

The Miners are off Saturday but return to Hermon Brothers Field Sunday for the final non-league game of the season. It's Fred Meyer Day at the ballpark as the Miners welcome the Oregon Black Sox. Jeremy Atkins is slated to start. Game time is Sunday, 7 p.m. first pitch. Miners pregame starts at 6:45, and catch all the action right here.

Miners Look for First Winning Streak of Year Versus Monarchs

2009-06-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

The Miners look to take a quick two game break from league action this weekend with the first matchup against the Lake Eerie Monarchs tonight at 7. The Miners come off their first win of the season against the Goldpanners and hope to carry that momentum over.

In the first two games, the Miners have showed off all facets of their game. In the opener, the offense was what stuck out as a strength. The team quickly put up 5 runs in the first 4 innings of action showing a nice transition to the wood bats used in the ABL as opposed to the metal ones in college.

The Miners showed their prowess on the mound and in the field in game 2. The Goldpanners came to Hermon Borthers Field and could only leave with one run and that one wasn’t even earned. David Stilley (Washington St.) had great command from start to finish. He found the strike zone early and never lost sight of it. He did a great job of mixing in his curveball and cutter to hit the corners of the plate ending up with 8 Ks in his first ABL action.

If his stat line of 7IP, 3H, 1R, 0ER, and 8Ks was not enough for you, Estevan Uriegas (Texas A&M) comes to the mound in the 8^th and strikes out the side. Ryan Cole (St. John’s) then comes in and only allows one base runner to wrap it up for the good guys.

This Monarchs team from the Great Lakes League is no push over beating the Glacier Pilots at Mulcahy Stadium yesterday 6-5. They have the advantage of having most of their players already with them. That’s something the Miners and every other ABL team is still waiting for.

The Miners have already showed how good they could be if the pieces all come together. Now they have 2 non-league games in order to work out all of the kinks in their play before heading back to league action Monday as the Anchorage Bucs come back into town.

Miners in '09 MLB Draft

2009-06-12T17:15:00.001-07:00

There was plenty of Miner representation in this year’s MLB First Year Player draft. Last year’s team had three players drafted led by Garrett Richards (Oklahoma). The right handed power pitcher was taken 42nd overall by the Los Angeles Angels. The next Miner taken was another rightie pitcher in Charles Ruiz (Cal St. Long Beach) from last year’s squad. He went 301st to the Colorado Rockies. The Florida Marlins then swooped down to snatch two former Miners in outfielder Kyle Jensen (St. Mary’s CA) from the 2008 team and leftie pitcher Jared Eskew (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) from 2007 with the 368th and 878th pick respectively.

There were also 2 current Miners selected by MLB teams in the latter rounds of the draft. Outfielder DJ Gentile (Cal Poly) led the Miners in batting average in ‘08 and was chosen in the 43rd round by the Cleveland Indians. Third baseman Shane Brown (Central Florida) followed Gentile being taken by the Yankees in the 48th round of the draft.

Gentile is not yet with the squad as he is still finishing up classes, but both of these players would be greatly missed by Mat-Su if they decide to sign with minor league teams. Gentile brings a consistent bat with a lot of power that would be great in the 3, 4, or 5 holes in the order. Brown has already showed great range at 3rd base in just the first 2 games of the season and backs that up with a strong bat that can hit for average and power. Brown fills a hole at third that no one else on this team could fill quite as well.

I had a chance to catch up with Shane to get his thoughts on being taken in the draft, so check out the link to the right to see what he had to say.

Second Game... First Win

2009-06-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

The simple story from Thursday's game? Everything went right for the Miners. David Stilley pitched a gem in his first outing for Mat-Su, the Goldpanners were shorthanded for the team's first ABL meeting and the Miners got in the 5-1 win for the first time this season.

Washington State's Stilley notched his first win with 7 sharp innings of 3-hit baseball, striking out 8 in the process. Estevan Uriegas (Texas A&M) and Ryan Cole (St. John's) pitched an inning each of spotless relief, with only 1 hit and 1 walk between them.

Meanwhile, the Miners jumped on the Panners early and often. The club from Fairbanks needed to use 2 pitchers in the field (Derek Grieve at 1st and Jordan LeGros at 3rd) and 1 as the DH (Scott Greene). The scoring started in the 2nd when Jonathan Cisneros (St. Mary's- TX) led off the inning with a double down the left field line and Will Musson (E Connecticut St) walked. Cisneros stole third on a fake bunt attempt by Scott Arthur and later scored on a fielder's choice. Two fielding errors allowed the Miners to score 3 runs in the inning.

That would be all Mat-Su needed, but added 1 run in the bottom of the 4th after David Alleman (Texas A&M) singled and eventually scored. Alleman went 1-2, scored twice and also stole 2 bases. Mat-Su added the final run in the 7th when Will Musson singled and scored after a three-base throwing error.

The game was a solid overall effort to move the Miners to 1-1 in ABL game. Mat-Su hosts the Lake Erie Monarchs of the Great Lakes League. Game time is 7 p.m., catch all the action with Miners Pregame at 6:45 by clicking on the Teamline link right here.

Miners Drop Season Opener to Bucs

2009-06-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

The Miners had a promising start to the year after being down 1 after the first inning.

They quickly added 2 runs in the bottom of the second after a lead off walk for Will Musson. Scott Arthur moved him over with a well placed sacrifice bunt. Nick Croce then came to the plate and singled for the first RBI of the season for the Miners. He then stole second and Jonathan Johnson got a single to advance him to third. The Bucs did not have the best defensive play and Croce scored the 2nd run on a error.

Almonte relinquished a triple to deep center field in the top of the third to bring the score back even at 2's. The bottom of the 3rd and top of the 4th were very uneventful as each team had a 1, 2, 3 inning. The bottom of the 4th is where the Miners showed off their offensive skills. They scored 3 runs with hits by Arthur, Croce, Johnson and Shane Brown. Add in Nick Cox getting hit by a pitch and Newalu's fielder's choice and the team had 6 base runners during the inning. Croce tallied his 2nd RBI of the game while Brown added one of his own to the box score.

After a very promising 4th inning, the Miner's could not quite hold onto the lead. The Bucs scored 4 runs in the top of the 5th led by a Brian Bello 3 run homer and the Miners could never really recover. The Bucs tacked on one more in the 6th and another in the 9th to bring it to the final score of 8-5.

The Miners looked a little off in the field with 4 errors on the day (meaning only 4 of the runs were earned) which Coach Raley attributes to having the players not being used to playing with each other yet. The Miners also showed a little bit of trouble on the mound giving up those 8 runs. The ABL is usually a lower scoring league with these college players not used to hitting with wood bats.

On the flip side, the Miners showed a lot guts making a couple comebacks in order to try to pull out the W. Also, offensively the squad looked very good. They did a good job of getting runners on base, advancing the runners (through bunts, steals, etc.) and getting the well timed hit with runners in scoring position. If they played as well offensively in the rest of the games as they did in the first, they will hang near the top of the standings like they have the past few seasons.

The next game is another home league game against the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks. The Mat-Su Miners pregame starts at 6:45 on matsuminers.org. Remember to check out the chat room and live scorebook too!

Welcome to the Mat-Su Miners Blog for 2009!!

2009-06-11T17:07:00.000-07:00

Well if you couldn't tell by the headline, this is the first entry in the Mat-Su Miners blog for the 2009 season. Andrew and I (the broadcasters) will be bringing you Miners insights here throughout the season. Whether it be post game reactions, practice updates or anything else having to do with your Mat-Su Miners. Make sure to check in frequently to get the most up to date news.

Also make sure to check out matsuminers.org for all of our live game broadcasts. They can be found by clicking the Watch the game link on the front page. We start broadcasts 15 minutes before the game with the Mat-Su Miners pregame. The website also has a live boxscore for every home game as well as updated stats after every miners game home or road. I know this is a lot but if you want to be a part of the broadcast and interact with us directly in the booth, check out the chat room. The links for the chat room and live box score are also under the watch the game link.

So to get your daily dose of Miners baseball make sure to check out matsuminers.org and our 2009 Mat-Su Miners blog right here.