» Sports

 » Baseball

 » Pen Oilers

 » PGA Golf

 » Nascar

 » Outdoors

 » Fishing

 » Home

By WILL MORROW
Peninsula Clarion

Chad Tracy (in batting helmet) celebrates his eight-inning run with teammates Friday night. Photo by M. Scott Moon

The Peninsula Oilers got some solid pitching, good defense and timely hitting to defeat the Anchorage Bucs 3-0 in Alaska Baseball League action Friday at Coral Seymour Memorial Park.

"The guys played great defense behind me," said Oilers starting pitcher Ty Dunham. "We got out of a couple of jams. They (the Bucs) hit some balls hard and luckily, my guys were there."

Dunham pitched seven innings for the win, scattering four hits and walking three while striking out five. His first jam came in the first inning when the Bucs had runners at second and third with one out, but Dunham was able to get a line-out to left field and fly ball to center to get out of the frame.

The Oilers also cut down a runner at the plate in the fourth inning as Ryan Gipson fielded a ground ball at second. With the infield drawn in, Gipson was able to fire home in time to get the runner trying to score from third.

Children wait with Scoop, the Peninsula Oilers mascot, to take to the field for a promotion between innings Friday night. Photo by M. Scott Moon

The Oilers put their first run on the board in the sixth inning as Gipson drew a leadoff walk and Luke Salas followed with a triple to the wall in right-center field.

"I've been making good contact with the ball, I've just been waiting for it to start falling in the holes," Salas said.

Dunham got a comebacker to end a Bucs threat in the seventh, keeping the Oilers on top, and Chase Christianson had to work out of a first-and-third, none-out jam as he came on in relief to start the eight inning. Christianson recorded a strikeout, then got a fly ball to center and a grounder to short to escape unscathed.

The Bucs also had a base runner in the ninth inning with a two-out walk, but Adam Reifer was able to close out the game for the save.

The Oilers also had to overcome atmospheric conditions as smoke and ash from the Fox Creek fire made it difficult for fielders to pick up the ball.

"It was brutal. A couple of fly balls in the middle innings were tough. Thank goodness it passed," Salas said.

Salas also helped the Oilers add a pair of insurance runs in the eighth inning, hitting a one-out double, stealing third and scoring on a single by Chad Tracy. Tracy stole second and scored on a single by Rocky Laguna.

Salas said the team was finally feeling fresh and energized, thanks to a day off, after a grinding road trip to start July and a tough home series earlier this week.

"Unfortunately, baseball is a game of failure. When you go through a rough stretch, you have to deal with that adversity," Salas said. "We're going to try to keep our streak going. We're swinging the bats pretty good. If we keep playing our kind of baseball, we'll be all right."

OILERS 3, BUCS 0

Bucs ab r h bi Oilers ab r h bi

Matteucci cf 3 0 0 0 Gipson 2b 3 1 0 0

Seng-Wei ss 4 0 2 0 Salas lf 4 1 2 1

Harper 2b 3 0 1 0 Tracy dh 4 1 1 1

Corder rf 3 0 1 0 Inouye cf 3 0 0 0

Pack lf 4 0 0 0 Hendricks c 2 0 0 0

Robbins dh 3 0 0 0 Faulkner 1b 4 0 0 0

Raber 1b 3 0 0 0 Khaulelio ss 3 0 1 0

Zornes c 3 0 1 0 Rye rf 3 0 0 0

McAngus 3b 2 0 1 0 McGuire 3b 3 0 0 0

—- - - - - Laguna ph 2 0 1 1

Totals 29 0 6 0 Totals 31 3 5 3

Anchorage 000 000 000 —0

Peninsula 000 001 02X —3

E — McAngus, Seng-Wei 2, Harper. LOB — Bucs 10, Oilers 6. SB — Salas, Tracy, Inouye, Corder. 2B — Seng-Wei, Salas. 3B — Salas. S — Matteucci, Harper.

ip h r er bb so

Bucs

Cobb, L 8 5 3 3 2 3

Oilers

Dunham, W 7 4 0 0 3 5

Christianson 1 2 0 0 0 1

Reifer, S 1 0 0 0 1 0

PB — Hendricks.

E-mail this Story a friend	E-mail a message to the editor	Read our paper on your PDA	Have our Headlines e-mailed to you

Discuss this story in our Discussion Forum