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Jeff Walker knows exactly what Anchorage Bucs pitcher Christian Bergman is capable of.

After all, this is Bergman's fourth season as a member of the Alaska Baseball League squad, the last two spent with Walker serving as his assistant coach.

So when Walker, now in his first season as skipper of the Peninsula Oilers, noticed Bergman wasn't at his apex Wednesday night in the final game of a three-game series, and the Oilers still couldn't find a consistent rhythm at the plate, Walker was a little confused.

"It was kind of a mystery. I thought he was throwing slop up there," Walker said of Bergman, who allowed four runs on seven hits and one walk over 6 2/3 innings, although was taken off the hook when the Bucs pulled out a 9-4 win with a monster eighth inning. "He's a pitcher and he's smart and he can mix his pitches well, enough to get guys out and keep guys off balance.

"I had the kid for two years and he doesn't look the same," he added. "He looks tired."

Left in the game perhaps a batter too long, Bergman surrendered the tying runs during the seventh, but the Bucs redeemed him, striking for five runs during an eighth-inning rally that snapped the Oilers five-game winning streak at Coral Seymour Memorial Park.

"Probably should have got to him a little bit sooner and figured out what he was doing a little bit sooner," Walker said, "but you know, our guys battled."

The Oilers, who had allowed only five runs during their previous five wins and now sit at 6-7 in the ABL, trailed 4-2 before storming back themselves in the seventh.

The Bucs had just extended their cushion to two off reliever Nick Loredo in the top of the inning when Eddie Young doubled to left and scored on a two-out single by Michael Hur, his third hit and second RBI of the game.

Wasting no time, though, Peninsula second baseman Ryan Fisher doubled to open the bottom half of the seventh and moved to third on a ground-out.

Bucs manager Thom Dreier promptly conferenced with Bergman -- who went 4-2 with a 1.34 ERA in 60 2/3 innings of work for the Bucs last summer -- after he walked Joe Kohan with two down, his first and only walk of the game.

Dreier decided to leave his starter on the mound.

Walker was surprised he did.

Turns out it was the wrong move.

A passed ball allowed Fisher to bolt home in making it 4-3 and Garry Kuykendall drove a 1-1 Bergman pitch to the right-center wall for a triple, plating Kohan with the tying run and knocking Bergman from the game.

"He's a sinker-ball pitcher and I told our guys normally you look top half of the baseball, but off a sinker-ball guy you look bottom half and try to elevate the ball, and if you do, you fly out and that's a win on your side. You ground out, that's what he's trying to get you to do," Walker said. "We scored enough off him that normally, should have won off that."

Mike Ratigan, who faced one batter and recorded one out in Tuesday's win, took over for Loredo in the eighth and struggled right off the bat, surrendering four straight singles to begin the inning. With one out and two runs already in for the Bucs, Ratigan couldn't seem to record the second out as he as he gave up another RBI single and a two-run double to Kellen Kiilsgaard, who finished 3-for-5, in handing Anchorage a commanding 9-4 cushion.

"Ratigan came out and didn't have his stuff and left some balls up," Walker said. "He made mistakes and they took advantage of the mistakes was about it."

Forrest Snow then allowed a leadoff single to Shayne Willson to start the eighth, but there would not be another late-game rally for the Oilers this time. Snow, who earned the win, sat down the next three batters he faced, the final two on strikeouts, and closer Kevin Jacob finished them off by recording a perfect ninth, two more going down on strikes.

"I don't think we were ready to play early in the game," Walker said. "I thought we were a little flat and then we kind of built some momentum there, the guys kept playing hard all the way through. It's just we came up on the short end."

Starting out inconsistent before settling into a comfortable rhythm, Peninsula starter Scott Snodgress allowed three runs, only one earned, on four hits and three walks over five sporadic innings. He struck out six and left with his team trailing by a run.

Snodgress, who entered having surrendered merely two runs in 13 innings of work, allowed three in the first inning Wednesday, although only one by his own volition.

Suffering from early control problems, the left-hander from Stanford University opened the game with back-to-back walks to Tyler Sibley and Young and then loaded the bases with no outs on a perfectly positioned bunt single by Kiilsgaard. Hur then jumped on a 1-2 Snodgress fastball, blooping it into short right field in plating Sibley for the early lead.

The southpaw battled his way to two outs with a pair of strikeouts and appeared to miraculously work his way out of the jam with just the one run on the scoreboard by inducing Brian Bello to hit into an inning-ending ground-out.

The slow roller was charged by shortstop Caleb Bushyhead, who initially had hoped to nab the runner at second base. When he realized he had no chance, however, Bushyhead threw late and in the dirt to first, his 10th error of the season, the ball scooting past Mark Tracy and allowing two more unearned runs to cross in helping the Bucs to a surprisingly quick 3-0 lead.

Snodgress took matters into his own hands in the third. He got a ground-out to start the inning and after falling behind Zach Vincej 3-1, he should have walked or hit Vincej with a high, inside fastball. The ball, though, somehow nicked Vincej's bat for strike two and Snodgress capitalized, whiffing Vincej on the 11th pitch of the at-bat before catching Jason Martinson staring at strike three to end the inning.

That seemed to briefly energize Snodgress, too, as he retired the side in the fourth, striking out the first two batters he saw in running his total to six strikeouts and four in a row, and then sat down the first two Bucs in the fifth. A pair of two-out base hits to Kiilsgaard and Hur, who went a combined 5-for-9 from the Nos. 3 and 4 holes, respectively, were wasted when Snodgress needed a single pitch to retire Vincej on a pop out.

"Scott got in a little trouble early," Walker admitted. "He threw a little too many pitches and got through the fifth."

Bergman, who fanned seven, was anything but inaccurate in the early going, striking out four Oilers en route to a perfect first two frames before allowing consecutive singles to Michael Miller and Bushyhead to start the third.

After Kohan, who went 2-for-3 with a walk from the No. 9 hole, loaded the bases on the Oilers third straight single, sending a 1-2 Bergman offering right up the middle, the Oilers got one run back on a sacrifice fly by Kuykendall and then immediately cut it to 3-2 on a well-placed sac bunt by Kawika Emsley-Pai.

"We hung around and battled and tied it up," Walker said. "I'd take our chances nine out of 10 times coming back from 3-0 after the first.

"I like where we're at. We've got some momentum and guys got some confidence," he added. "This is our longest stretch of the season, so I just hope they can prepare for that and get ready and go out and take care of business."

Wednesday

Bucs 9, Oilers 4

Bucs AB R H BI Oilers AB R H BI

Sbley 2b 3 2 0 0 Kykndl cf 3 0 2 2

Young dh 4 3 2 1 Em-Pai c 3 0 0 1

Klsgrd rf 5 1 3 2 Wllsn lf 4 0 1 0

Hur lf 5 0 3 2 Kskw dh 4 0 0 0

Vincej ss 5 0 0 0 Tracy 1b 4 0 0 0

Mrtnsn 3b 5 1 2 0 Fsher 2b 4 1 1 0

Bello cf 3 1 1 0 Miller rf 4 1 1 0

Crank c 5 0 1 1 Bsyhd ss 4 1 1 0

McCnky 1b 5 1 1 1 Kohan 3b 3 1 2 0

Totals 40 9 13 7 Totals 33 4 8 2

Anchorage 300 000 150 --9

Peninsula 002 000 200 --4

E -- Bushyhead, Kuykendall. LOB -- Bucs 9, Oilers 5. 2B -- Young, Fisher, Kiilsgaard. 3B -- Kuykendall. SF -- Kuykendall. S -- Emsley-Pai, Bello. SB -- Young, Willson.

IP H R ER BB SO

Bucs

Bergman 6 2/3 7 4 4 1 7

Henderson 1/3 0 0 0 0 0

Snow, W 1 1 0 0 0 2

Jacob 1 0 0 0 0 2

Oilers

Snodgress 5 4 3 1 3 6

Loredo 2 3 1 1 0 0

Ratigan, L 1 6 5 5 0 1

Anderson 1 0 0 0 1 0

WP -- Snodgress. PB -- Crank 2.