Mat-Su’s Winning Streak Comes to a Screeching Halt

It had to end at some point.

That was a common sentiment after the Mat-Su Miners lost a game for the first time since June 11. In the 11 games since, the Miners had defeated every ABL team at least once, including the Bucs four times, and vaulted themselves from a game under .500 to within striking distance of the league's top seed.

The game initially looked like a potential pitcher's duel. Anchorage's Zan Rose (4-0) and Mat-Su's Ryan Peterson (1-3) traded scoreless halves of the first inning.  The Bucs struck first in the second with a Max Ross RBI double, but Peterson escaped with no further damage. The rest of the second, plus all of the third, went similarly.

In the top of the fourth, the game would quickly turn from a tight defensive battle into a slaughter. Ross got a ride home on a Brody Briggs RBI double before Will Burns got runners on the corners with none out via a single. Peterson struck out the next two Bucs he faced, sparking hope that Mat-Su could potentially once again escape without any more damage. With two strikes on two-way star Cole Carlon, the Sam Houston pitcher had a chance to record an out that, with the benefit of hindsight, could very well have completely changed the course of the game.

Instead, Carlon ripped an RBI single, which opened the floodgates. The next three batters would all manage RBI hits to balloon the Anchorage lead to 7. Peterson coaxed a groundout from Briggs, the man who started it all, but his day was done.

On the other side, Rose escaped a two-baserunner jam in the bottom of the fourth, but wasn't so lucky an inning later. After a one-two-three frame from Luke Smith, Rose allowed a one-out Kellen Strohmeyer double and plunked Blake Balsz to bring up an identical situation. Chase Wilcox singled to load the bases, Drake Kerr struck out, and Kyle McCausland, down to his last strike in the inning, legged out an infield hit that became an extra-base hit thanks to an errant throw from third baseman Josh Hankins. All three baserunners scored, Rose was removed from the game, and for a brief moment, a glimmer of hope flickered.

That hope wouldn't last long, however. In the very next frame, Nolan Murphy allowed an RBI single and a bases-loaded walk to bring the score to 9-3 Anchorage, before Nico Tomasello surrendered a solo blast to Carlon to return the deficit to 7.

The true knockout punch, however, wouldn't come from anyone on the Bucs. A sudden torrential rain descended upon Hermon Brothers Field during the bottom of the seventh, and the umpires decided to put the Miners and their fans out of their misery by calling the game right then and there, the requisite five innings having been played.

With the loss, Mat-Su now needs the last-place Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks to somehow defeat the Bucs twice in their Wednesday doubleheader for any chance of the ABL's top seed. Failing that, the Miners will be the second seed and face off with the Peninsula Oilers in the playoffs, which begin Saturday. Before that, however, the Miners and the Bucs will tangle one final time in Palmer at 6:00 PM AKDT on Thursday. To follow the action, head down to the ballpark or tune into the Mat-Su Miners' YouTube channel!

Charlie Fellows, 2024 Broadcaster
Mat-Su Miners