The Peninsula Oilers put the finishing touches on a winless road trip Wednesday at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer, getting blown out by the Mat-Su Miners 11-3.
The loss dropped the Oilers to 0-5 in the Alaska Baseball League and 6-10 overall. The Oilers have lost five straight, with all of those losses coming on the five-game road trip.
Peninsula also started 0-5 in the ABL last year, eventually earning a fourth-place finish.
Mat-Su, meanwhile, is headed in the other direction. The Miners won their third straight in the ABL and hold a 6-2 record, which ties them for first in the league with the Anchorage Glacier Pilots.
The Oilers now look to the friendly confines of Coral Seymour Memorial Park to get them a win. The team starts an eight-game homestand today with a 7 p.m. tilt against the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks. After a 1-0 loss to the Glacier Pilots Wednesday, the Panners stand at 1-3 in the ABL.
Wednesday, the Oilers continued to struggle in the three important facets of the game. On offense, the team managed just six hits and three runs. On defense, the team committed three errors. And on the mound, loser Garrett Pennington last just three innings, giving up six runs, five of which were earned. Reliever Tim Gorski then gave up five runs in four innings, although just two of those runs were earned.
Kyle Knoblauch picked up the win for the Miners, pitching six innings and giving up three runs on six hits while walking one and striking out four.
Things actually didn't start that bad for the Oilers. Joe Holland started the game with a double and Josh Lex eventually knocked Holland home with a sacrifice fly.
However, the Miners came right back with three runs in the bottom of the first inning. With two out, the Miners loaded the bases when Joey Hooft singled, Matt Inouye walked and Billy Munich singled. Ryan Beglin then scored all three with a triple.
In the bottom of the second, the lead stretched to 4-1 when Inouye walked with the bases loaded to force in Matt Eichel. Then in the third, Mat-Su made it 6-1 when Jase Turner clocked a two-run home run.
The Oilers got a run in the fourth when Ben Fritz knocked in Andy Dahl with a single, but Mat-Su blew the game wide open with five runs in the fifth inning.
Dahl finished off the scoring for the Oilers with a solo home run. Dahl finished the game 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI.
For Mat-Su, Beglin was 3-for-5 with two runs and three RBIs.
Wednesday
MINERS 11, OILERS 3
Oilers AB R H BI Miners AB R H BI
Holland 2b 4 1 1 0 Butts cf 5 1 2 1
Uribes ss 4 0 1 0 Kelly ss 5 0 1 0
Frazee cf 3 0 0 0 Hooft 2b 3 1 1 0
Lex lf 3 0 0 1 Pagnetti rf 1 1 1 1
Dahl rf 4 2 2 1 Inouye rf 3 1 1 3
Bensko 1b 4 0 0 0 Munich dh 5 1 2 1
Fritz c 2 0 1 1 Beglin 3b 5 2 3 3
Schnbrgr c 1 0 0 0 Turner 1b 5 1 2 2
Mangels dh 3 0 1 0 Eichel c 3 2 0 0
Bacon 3b 3 0 0 0 Noles lf 3 1 0 0
Totals 31 3 6 3 Totals 38 11 13 11
Peninsula 100 101 000 --3
Mat-Su 312 050 000 --11
E -- Bacon, Pennington, Gorski. DP -- Peninsula 1, Mat-Su 1. LOB -- Peninsula 4, Mat-Su 9. 2B -- Beglin, Dahl, Holland. 3B -- Beglin, Uribes. HR -- Turner, Dahl. SF -- Lex.
IP H R ER BB SO
Oilers
Pennington, W 6 6 3 3 1 4
Gorski 4 6 5 2 2 2
Day 1 1 0 0 0 1
Miners
Knoblauch, W 6 6 3 3 1 4
Beck 2 0 0 0 0 1
Heil 1 0 0 0 0 0
HBP -- by Knoblauch (Fritz), by Pennington (Eichel, Noles).
