For the second-straight day, the Peninsula Oilers used a walk-off single to defeat the Chugiak Chinooks in Alaska Baseball League play Monday at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai.
Brent Diaz singled with two outs in the bottom of the 12th inning to score Bennett Oliver and give the Oilers a 1-0 triumph, a three-game sweep of the Chinooks and a four-game winning streak.
With the win, the Oilers gained even more room at the top of the American League standings.
The Oilers lead with a 10-7 record, with the Anchorage Bucs 3 1-2 games back at 6-10 and the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks four games back at 5-10.
The Oilers travel to Anchorage to face the Bucs tonight at 7 p.m.
“If we just keep coming together as a team and playing like this, and our pitching staff keeps holding it down for us, we’re going to make a run here,” Diaz told 1140 AM in a postgame interview.
Bennett Oliver, who had the walk-off single in Sunday’s game, started the 12th inning with a walk off of Chinooks reliever Travis Stone. Ted Boeke had a sacrifice bunt to move Oliver to second. But Brian Ruhm then popped up to the shortstop for the second out.
Diaz then singled to left, and the Oilers rolled the dice by sending Oliver to score. The gamble worked when the throw was not accurate.
“I knew the way the game was going, how there hadn’t been too many hits, that if there was anything hit, that I had to press it,” Oliver said to 1140 AM. “He didn’t make the throw on the money and I had a good slide.”
Diaz came through with the winner despite 12 innings of crouching behind the plate.
“It’s all about being selfless,” he said. “As a catcher I learned that and in college I learned that. All I’m trying to do is put a ball in play and help the team win.”
Pitchers dominated the game, with the Chinooks getting two hits and the Oilers getting four hits.
Josh Medeles pitched six innings and gave up just three hits. Cory Abbott and Sean Michel then had hitless frames, and Paul Lujan put two hitless innings on the board.
Shane Ennis and Jordan Kron each had scoreless innings to finish off the Chinooks. Kron ended up with the win.
“We’re one big unit,” Kron said. “I’m going to take the win, but I don’t feel like I deserve it. I think Josh threw a hell of a game and we just combined to get it done.”
Braxton Wilks pitched the first eight innings for the Chinooks, giving up just two hits. Jason Karkenny then held the Oilers to just one hit in three innings before Stone came on.
Diaz had two of the hits for the Oilers. Jordan Washam and Ruhm had the other hits.
Monday
Oilers 1, Chinooks 0, 12 inn.
Chinooks AB R H BI Oilers AB R H BI
Cmwl 3b 2 0 0 0 Wshm 2b 5 0 1 0
Owns cf 5 0 0 0 Sfrt lf 5 0 0 0
Mogg dh 5 0 1 0 Olvr 1b 4 1 0 0
Sdgr 1b 4 0 0 0 Bke 3b 4 0 0 0
Bxwl c 5 0 0 0 Ruhm rf 5 0 1 0
Frto 2b 5 0 0 0 Diaz c 5 0 2 1
Brnk lf 4 0 1 0 Wlsn cf 3 0 0 0
Bbst rf 3 0 0 0 Glsy ss 3 0 0 0
Bass ss 4 0 0 0 Flks dh 3 0 0 0
Totals 37 0 2 0 Totals 37 1 4 1
Chugiak 000 000 000 000 —0
Peninsula 000 000 000 000 —0
S — Baranek, Boeke, Wilson. SB — Galusky. E — Washam. LOB — Chinooks 7, Oilers 6. DP — Oilers 1.
IP H R ER BB SO
Chinooks
Wilks 8 2 0 0 2 5
Karkenny 3 1 0 0 0 0
Stone, L 2-3 1 1 1 1 0
Oilers
Medeles 6 2 0 0 3 6
Abbott 1 0 0 0 0 0
Michel 1 0 0 0 0 0
Lujan 2 0 0 0 0 1
Ennis 1 0 0 0 1 0
Kron, W 1 0 0 0 0 0
WP — Ennis. HBP — by Medeles (Staudinger).
