The Peninsula Oilers bats are getting going just in time for the stretch run and the Alaska Baseball League playoffs.
The Oilers lost their last home series of the year 3-2 to the Anchorage Bucs, topping the Bucs 13-3 in seven innings Sunday at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai while also losing to the Bucs 13-8 on Saturday and 13-6 on Monday.
The Bucs, at 18-16, are three games ahead of the Oilers (15-21) for third place. The Anchorage Glacier Pilots (24-9) are 1.5 games up on the Mat-Su Miners (24-12) for first in the league. The Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks are out of playoff contention at 6-29.
Most likely, the Oilers have played their last game of the season at Seymour Park. The Bucs need a combination of just two more Oilers losses or Bucs wins to clinch the third seed in the playoffs, meaning there would be no chance for the Oilers to have a home series.
Peninsula is now averaging 11.3 hits per game in its last six games, and four of those games have just been seven innings.
Oilers head coach Larry McCann said the team has been getting better and better at-bats as the season has progressed.
“I just think a lot of our guys are getting a lot of at-bats under their belts and getting in a rhythm with the pitchers,” Oilers first baseman Dalton Bowling said. “We’re doing better laying off balls and just swinging at strikes.”
Sunday, the Oilers rolled up 14 hits to invoke the mercy rule in the seventh inning, with each member of the lineup getting one hit.
The loudest were from right fielder Noah Hennings and Bowling.
In the seventh with two outs, Hennings blasted a no-doubter to left field to score Graiden West and put the Oilers up by 10 to end the game.
The Bucs are short on pitching, so infielder Ricky Gatter was pitching the seventh. Hennings said he was sitting on a fastball with a 1-1 count and got it.
Walkoff home runs feel great as it is, but Hennings said hitting the home run at Seymour Park with a wood bat felt even better.
“Anytime you can get a solid barrel out here, it’s something different than anything you feel,” said Hennings, who was 2 for 4 with three runs and three RBIs. “At home, you can miss on a ball and still have it go out. Here, you’ve got to get the barrel.”
Bowling had the decisive blast in the pivotal fifth inning. The Oilers came into the frame down 1-0 and left with a 5-1 lead.
Hitting home runs to left field, as Hennings did for the Oilers and Garrett Anglim and Dylan Fesperman did for the Bucs, is one thing. Hitting one just to the left of the 387-foot sign in center field at Seymour Park is another.
Bowling did just that to give the Oilers the 5-1 lead.
“Fortunately, the wind was blowing out today a little bit so it kind of helped me,” said Bowling, who was 2 for 4 with four RBIs and a run. “I didn’t think it was going to be a homer off the bat, but I did get a good piece of it and it left us, so that was good for our team.”
Also having big games for the Oilers were Shunsuke Sakaino at 2 for 5 with two runs and three RBIs, West at 2 for 5 with two runs and two RBIs, and Casey Burnham at 2 for 3 with three runs.
On the mound, Nick Welch and Mason Kokodynski held down what can be an explosive Bucs lineup. Welch gave up a run on three hits in four innings, while Kokodynski gave up two runs on a hit in three innings.
For the first time in the series, the Bucs failed to score in the first inning.
“We got to get some at-bats while it was still 0-0,” McCann said. “It’s a little better for our guys when we’re not chasing runs early after we haven’t even gotten to the plate.”
With five games left in the season, McCann said he’d love to win every game and catch the Bucs for third place. But he said the priority will be getting pitchers the innings their college coaches want, setting up the pitching staff for the postseason, and keeping batters healthy.
In Saturday’s game, the Bucs showed how dangerous they can be, getting nine runs in the first three innings off Oilers starter Conner Kershaw. Alex Champagne, Chad Born and Michael Diaz all had three hits for the Bucs. Sakaino, Burnham and Bowling had two hits for the Oilers.
Monday’s game was an odd one. Due to high winds, the Oilers struggled just to get the tarp off the field. Once the game started, the wind remained strong and made every fly ball an adventure.
The Oilers committed six errors, while the Bucs had two errors. The Bucs had five runs in the seventh inning and five runs in the ninth inning to take command of the game.
Peninsula has just four games left in the regular season. The Oilers visit the Mat-Su Miners for a 4 p.m. doubleheader Friday.
Trey Becker of the Peninsula Oilers steals second in front of the tag of Anchorage Bucs shortstop Cody Grebeck on Sunday, July 24, 2022, at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
