Mat-Su Miners Advance to 2024 Top of the World Series Championship

To some, this might feel like the same old story.

The Miners take care of business during the regular season, cruise through the playoffs, and enter the Top of the World Series championship feeling good. The story then ends, as it has in each of the last two seasons, with Mat-Su just short of ultimate glory. It's a tried-and-true tale, and you could be forgiven for predicting a rerun.

So far, however, the Miners have made a compelling case that this season is different.

Mat-Su won 6-1 on Sunday, completing a two-game sweep of the Peninsula Oilers and securing its third consecutive shot at the title. For the second time in three years, that shot will come at Mulcahy Stadium, but against a different opponent this time. We'll get to that in a bit, but first, how they got there.

On the heels of the 3-0 win in game one, the Miners entered game two's "road" contest undefeated in six tries at Hermon Brothers Field against the Oilers. Despite batting first, the Miners seemed to embrace their road roles in an explosive first inning. Cameron Teper (2-2) allowed a Chase Wilcox single to start things off – the fourth game in a row Wilcox has kicked off with a hit – and Ryker Schow joined him on the basepaths with a single of his own. Kyle McCausland's subsequent knock loaded the bases with no one out against the Cal Baptist Lancer, and things would get worse before they got better.

After a Brandyn Durand pop-out, shortstop Dom Patrizi came to the plate. The Lehigh infielder led the ABL in RBIs through almost the entire season, but was edged out at the very end by Peninsula's Colin Robson. In this series, however, Patrizi has stolen the show. He managed a single in game one, but his second such hit set the tone early in game two. A two-run shot off the shortstop's bat scored Wilcox and Schow and put runners on the corners with one out. Christian Perez then took a pitch to the side to load them back up, which set the stage for a Ryan Cochran RBI fielder's choice. Teper escaped shortly thereafter, but the lead he gave the Miners would last the rest of the afternoon.

Hayden Hattenbach (2-1) dazzled in his third start of the season. The 6'8" lefty struck out two Oilers en route to leaving a pair in scoring position in the bottom of the first, and scarcely ran into any more trouble from there. The UC-Santa Barbara Gaucho finished with four scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and striking out six while further proving the hypothesis that lefty arms fare better in Palmer.

In the fourth, Mat-Su tagged Teper for another trio of runs. Ryan Cochran's leadoff double led to two runners in scoring position after a Kellen Strohmeyer walk and Blake Balsz sacrifice bunt. From there, Wilcox singled in Cochran, the Oilers fell for a delayed double steal which moved Wilcox up a base and scored Strohmeyer all the way from second after a throwing error by Peninsula catcher Braden Smith, and Schow capped off the Miners' scoring with an RBI single of his own.

With neither Teper nor Hattenbach going past the fourth, a bullpen game on both sides commenced, and as one would expect, Mat-Su's dominant pen won out. Luke Smith went two scoreless with five strikeouts, and Ryan Harrahill pitched in four more while allowing an unearned Oiler run – the only time Peninsula would score all series. The Nebraska righty pitched the final three frames, thereby earning his first ABL save.

On the other side, Peninsula head coach Larry McCann all but emptied his bullpen, trotting out seven different arms in relief of Teper. Ironically, this seemed to work, as Mat-Su struggled to get anything going against the cast of Mose Hayes, Colby Reynolds, Nicholai Arbach, Aaron Morris, Seth Wrightstone, Zach Camp, and Emerson Fleck. Unfortunately for Peninsula, it was too little too late. After Harrahill struck out three to close the game out, the Oilers' season came to a close with a final mark of 23-19.

For Mat-Su, now 26-16, it was a bittersweet moment – not because of their achievement, of course, but because just twenty minutes before, the Anchorage Bucs had completed a 4-run comeback to take their series 2-0 over the Glacier Pilots, which meant that Sunday's game would be the last Miners action at Hermon Brothers Field in the summer of 2024. The crowd stood and cheered as their team punched their tickets to head an hour south down the Glenn Highway to complete the job.

But now, back to the top. Why is this year different? A couple things. First, while the Miners finished first in the ABL last season, their record this year was actually one win better. On its own, this doesn't mean much, but it hints at the much larger reason why this team stands out: quality of competition. This was the most competitive season in the Alaska Baseball League in some time, and that reflects in the records. Last year, Mat-Su won the league with just 23 wins as parity reigned. In 2022, they won 28, but the Pilots won 30 as the league went essentially just two teams deep. Ditto in 2021, when Mat-Su went 30-13 and second-place Anchorage finished with the exact same record that this year's Miners did. Every player on an ABL roster is fantastic, of course, but each team was uniquely dangerous this season. Scoring was up, rainouts forced many doubleheaders, new extra-innings rules spread chaos and confusion at every turn, and still, above all of that, the Miners managed to string together an eleven-game win streak and cruise through their opening round series.

Beyond all the actual evidence, however, there's one other reason this could be the year: the Anchorage Glacier Pilots aren't waiting for them. It's the Bucs, the top team in the ABL for almost the entire season, who will host Mat-Su in the Alaska Baseball League's final set of games. With no titles to show since the mid-2010s dynasty, the Miners can author the first entry in a new reign with just two more wins.

Game one of the final battle is Tuesday at 6:00 PM AKDT. The Miners will need all the support they can get, either in attendance at Mulcahy Stadium or on the Mat-Su Miners' YouTube channel!

Charlie Fellows, 2024 Broadcaster
Mat-Su Miners