The Peninsula Oilers defeated the San Francisco Seals 3-0 on Wednesday at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai to take the season-opening series 3-1.
The Oilers, who posted two shutouts against the Seals in the series, now take Thursday off before opening a four-game, nonleague series against the Lake Erie (Michigan) Monarchs, starting at 7 p.m. Friday.
Four Oilers pitchers combined to hold the Seals to just four hits Wednesday.
Jimmy Nesselt got the start and went five innings, yielding three hits and no walks while striking out five.
“I was working both sides of the plate with my fastball and I got some off-speed in there,” Nesselt said in a postgame radio interview on 1140 AM. “I just felt good today.”
Cody Richey followed Nesselt and actually picked up the victory with a scoreless and hitless inning. Tyler Gibson pitched two innings and gave up just a hit while punching out two, while Jeff Paschke notched the save with a perfect ninth.
The Oilers had a little bit of a frustrating day on offense, but it was enough for the win. Peninsula had six hits, its lowest game total of the season thus far, and left 10 runners on base.
All of the Oilers’ runs came when Nolan Sheridan, a pitcher who moved into the designated hitter slot, was at the plate.
In the sixth inning, Paschke, the only Oilers player with two hits, started the inning with a walk. Sandy Sandlin then followed with a walk. Paschke moved to third and Sandlin moved to second on a wild pitch, then Josh Rose walked to load the bases with two down.
Sheridan then came up and gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead when he was hit by a pitch.
“I came up with the bases juiced and was trying to put a four spot on the board right there but he came up and hit me,” Sheridan said on the radio. “I’ll take the ribby.”
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Oilers were able to come up with two insurance runs against Ghazaleh “Ozzie” Sailors, who last season became the first woman to pitch against the Oilers.
The Oilers loaded the bases with one out when Sandlin walked, Gabriel Munoz was hit by a pitch and Josh Rose walked.
Sheridan then came up, and Sailors tossed a passed ball to score Sandlin. Sheridan then singled to score Munoz.
Zach Hodgkiss took the loss for the Seals. Jacob Pavlovsky led San Francisco on offense with a double and a triple.
Wednesday
Oilers 3, Seals 0
Seals AB R H BI Oilers AB R H BI
Strky 2b 4 0 1 0 Yagi ss 3 0 0 0
Stvl lf 4 0 0 0 Hrndz 2b 3 0 0 0
Egli c 3 0 1 0 Pske 3b 3 1 2 0
Cpbl 1b 4 0 0 0 Snln cf 2 1 0 0
Pvlsy rf 3 0 2 0 McGl 1b 4 0 1 0
Amstg ss 3 0 0 0 Mnz c 2 1 1 0
Tmbki cf 3 0 0 0 Rose rf 2 0 0 0
Blch dh 3 0 0 0 Masn dh 2 0 0 0
Stn 3b 2 0 0 0 Srdn dh 1 0 1 2
—- — — — — DeVze 1b 0 0 0 0
—- — — — — Wght lf 4 0 1 0
Totals 29 0 4 0 Totals 26 3 6 2
San Francisco 000 000 000 —0
Peninsula 000 001 020 —3
2B — Starkey, Pavlovsky, Paschke. 3B — Pavlovsky. SB — Egli. CS — Seaton, Yagi, Paschke, McGill. LOB — Seals 4, Oilers 10. DP — Seals 1, Oilers 1.
IP H R ER BB SO
Seals
Hodgkiss, L 5 1-3 4 1 1 5 2
Blakeley 1 2-3 1 0 0 1 1
Sailors 1 1 2 2 2 0
Oilers
Nesselt 5 3 0 0 0 5
Richey, W 1 0 0 0 1 0
Gibson 2 1 0 0 0 2
Paschke, S 1 0 0 0 0 0
WP — Hodgkiss, Blakeley, Sailors. PB — Egli. HB — Hodgkiss, Blakeley, Sailors, Paschke. T — 2:13.
