Miners pick up another win in Anchorage

The Miners were in Anchorage for their first match up against the Glacier Pilots in 2026 and came out on top in another impressive performance from the pitching staff and are now 3-3. Skipper Ty Lebrun gave the RHP Kyle Chase from St. John's the nod for the first time this summer for the Miners.

The Miners struck first in the second with a bases loaded walk by thirdbaseman Kash Millar that scored firstbaseman Cooper Grace, but fell behind in the third when the Pilots plated two on two free passes, RBI single and RBI double play. Chase would be relieved after three with a final line of two earned runs on four hits, four free passes and four strikeouts. 

The Miners tied the lead in the fifth when centerfielder Matt Bline was plunked, moved into scoring postion on a balk, stole third and scored on a throwing error by the catcher. They took the lead four batter later when leftfielder Will Millard doubled down the left field line to score Grace and make it 3-2. The big RHP Arlo Pendleton from Cal Polywas the first call to the pen and after a clean fourth, found himself in trouble in the fifth. Bases juiced nobody out, Pendleton was able to get out of it unscathed with a pop out, shallow fly out and strikeout on a low and away slider.

"Was just trying to get these guys on three pitches or less," Pendleton said. "And feel like my slider was really good tonight."

Lebrun said Pendelton was able to keep the momentum the team had.

"In most situations you're hoping to get out of it with like a groundball doubleplay, give up one and move on," Lebrun said. "That's a real ballbuster when you have bases juiced and score none, and that kind of took the wind out of their sails."

Pendelton tossed three scoreless with three K's and set himself up nicely to get the win in his first appearence as a Miner.

The Miners added on three more in the eighth thanks to two erros and a wild pitch, and added one more in the ninth on a deep sac fly by secondbaseman Will Godfrey that scored catcher Declan Spooner. Zach Bowman, who took the mound in the seventh, finished it off and picked up a dominant three-inning save, allowing no hits, two walks and four K's.

"He's working on a slider and curveball that he threw a lot tonight," Lebrun said. "He's been trying to throw something that goes away from lefties and I thought it looked really good today."

Bowman was just a two-pitch guy this past spring with Gonzaga, only throwing a fastball and changeup.

Lebrun also said the team was able to get the good win by being solid all around.

"Hit. Finally hit. Played sound, good defense," Lebrun said. "Put together good at-bats late and we run the bases pretty well."

The Miners play the Chinooks again at home tomorrow at 4 P.M. AKDT. Oregon State LHP Jaxon Baker is expected to get the start.

"We just gotta play how we did tonigh, sound baseball," Lebrun said. "Two of our losses [vs Chinooks] came from errors where we forced our own hand, so if we play sound defense and put up the good at-bats we had tonight we'll be fine."