Miners win close one vs Bucs for third straight win

The Miners are now 5-3 and have their first win streak on the season after a 5-3 win vs the Anchorage Bucs. They're 3-0 at Mulcahy Stadium and 2-0 against the Bucs. Sam Houston RHP Collin Aloisio got the start for the boys in green. 

The Miners started off strong with a run in the first off the bat of rightfielder Jackson Babcock with an RBI single to left-center scored DH Diesel Toth. Aloisio had his best start of the season tossing five scoreless with six punchies and allowed just two hits and three walks. His best moment of the evening came in the third with a 1-0 lead, Aloisio gave up a leadoff double but got a groundout and back-to-back backwards K's to strand the runner at third. This had the entire team out of the dugout and fired up.

Aloisio said just attacking the zone worked out for him.

"All my pitches, especially the cutter was really hot tonight," Aloisio said. "Always good to get a win and help out the hitters, they did well tonight."

The Miners offense couldn't get anything else going for five innings and Nebraska RHP Cooper Grace was the first call from the pen for his first appearence on the mound this summer. He forced a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth with two strikeouts, and in the seventh the Miners offense plated two more when three straight free passes loaded the bases and the childhood friends and California Baptist teammates Matthew Bline and Diesel Toth both picked up RBI infield singles. 

With a 3-0 lead in the seventh, Grace ran into some trouble after a two-out, two-run shot from the Bucs secondbaseman Andrew Sheffield made it a one run ballgame. He was able to get into the eighth before Utah Valley RHP Colton Oullette came in with the tying run on and one out. Oullette got a huge strikout and forced a routine chopper to third, but a throwing error allowed the tying run to score before he struck out another to keep it 3-3 after eight. 

With momentum against them, the Miners offense came through. After a crucial error by the Bucs thirdbaseman to extend the inning, Jackson Babcock came up clutch with a roped double to right-center that almost cleared the bases, driving in two before Hayzen Inouye was questionably thrown out at home on the relay. After reviewing the footage from the Miners stream, he most definitely got in safely, but regardless the Miners led 5-3. 

Babcock, who went 3-5 with 3 RBI, said his thought process was to just be relaxed at the plate and was excited to come through for the guys.

"All I had to do was put the bat on the ball and good things would happen," Babcock said. "I was fired up, I kind of blacked out for a second."

Nebraska product Auden Pankonin came in for the save and after a lead off walk, he settled down and got three in a row with a punchy for the ballgame. Pankonin now has four saves on the summer, tied for first in the ABL, and Oullette got the win.

Head Coach Ty Lebrun said he they've been in a lot of tight ballgames already.

"Always good to walk away with a win on the road, and this year our guys awlays fight back late, Collin [Aloisio] threw the heck out of it," Lebrun said. "We're getting there, we gotta stop shooting ourselves in the foot, we can't get out of our own way but overall we're happy about the win."

Lebrun said his ABL-best pitching staff continues to impress.

"Collin battled through stuff, I thought seeing Cooper [Grace] throw tonight was great he just made on bad pitch," Lebrun said. "Oullette did a good job, got out of the inning just couldn't make a play behind him and Auden [Pankonin] was just nasty again." 

The Miners play the Bucs at home tomorrow, 6 P.M. AKDT before playing the Peninsula Oilers for the first time back-to-back days. Lebrun said they just have to be themselves.

"There's no easy games in the ABL, they'll [Oilers] be good, they're scrappy from what I've heard," Lebrun said. "We just gotta come out and be competitive."