Shih-Tsung Wang played the hero role twice Tuesday evening for the Peninsula Oilers, batting in a go-ahead run in the seventh inning and delivering a walk-off strike on fielder’s choice in the bottom of the ninth to lead the Oilers to a 5-4 nonleague victory over the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai.
“He’s hitting in the middle of the lineup for a reason,” said Oilers coach Brian Daly.
The victory stopped a brief two-game losing skid for the Oilers, who improved to 4-2 overall. The Goldpanners are no longer competing in the ABL.
Oilers pinch hitter Cameron Miller sparked the winning sequence with a leadoff single, and center fielder Darius Hill joined him with a successful bunt to put two runners on with no out. After Austin Piscotty advanced Miller and Hill with a sacrifice fly, Marshall Boggs was intentionally walked to load the bases, setting up Wang for his late theatrics.
“It’s a cool way to walk it off,” Miller said. “It’s kind of textbook, and (Wang) did great.”
Wang’s grounder was fielded by Panners second baseman Alex Mascarenas, whose throw to home plate was just off the mark. It ultimately did not matter, as Miller was able to step across the plate and join the joyous fracas that unfolded from the dugout.
“It was really clutch,” Miller said about the play.
Prior to the late drama, the Oilers had to resort to a seventh-inning rally to take their first lead of the game.
The Panners got off to a quick start, grabbing a 3-0 lead when Isaiah Aluko hit a three-run opposite field bomb behind the left field wall. The lead stuck for six innings of scoreless ball by the Oilers.
However, Miller entered in the seventh frame as a pinch hitter and promptly loaded the bases with a bloop single to center field, coming after a pair of singles by Chapuran and Alex Seifert. Hill hit into fielder’s choice and Chapuran and Seifert both scored on a throwing error by third baseman Kevin Connolly, closing the lead to 3-2. Hill reached second base on the sequence.
Boggs brought in the tying run on a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Miller to tie the event up at three apiece, and Wang notched a go-ahead RBI single to put the Oilers up 4-3.
In the top of the eighth, Panners catcher Jake Browne was hit by a pitch from relief pitcher Yi-Hsin Huang to load the bases, but Chapuran caught the pop out by Steven Weber to spoil the rally.
The intensity was heightened when Fairbanks pinch hitter Keaton Smith tied it up with a leadoff blast over the left field wall in the top of the ninth.
The Oilers were also working with an altered lineup after several players finally arrived in Kenai from their college teams, including Hill, Boggs and designated hitter Jonathan Washam.
“They’re all big,” Daly said. “Plus, we’re still trying out different combinations, and everyone is here except one.”
Huang ended up with the victory on the mound, pitching the final two innings in relief and giving up three hits with no walks or strikeouts. Ryan Smith started the first four innings and gave up three runs — zero earned — and five hits with one walk and one strikeout. Ryan Lillie tossed three solid innings of scoreless relief, not allowing a hit and striking out two.
The Oilers had their chances earlier in the game. In the bottom of the fourth, Oilers right fielder Brian Ruhm grounded out with Wang on third to keep Peninsula off the board, and in the bottom of the fifth, Jeff Chapuran was picked off at third on a pop fly by Jared Huber that recorded the second out.
Tuesday
Oilers 5, Goldpanners 4
Panners AB R H BI Oilers AB R H BI
Cnly 3b 5 0 0 0 Hill cf 5 1 1 0
Mrns 2b 5 0 0 0 Drw 2b 2 0 0 0
Kmzk cf 5 1 0 0 DWt dh 1 0 0 0
Hrrr lf 3 1 2 0 Pcty 3b 0 0 0 0
Lrkn lf 0 0 0 0 Bgs 1b 2 0 0 1
Alko rf 3 1 2 3 Wng lf 3 0 1 2
Btpo rf 1 0 1 0 Wsm dh 4 0 1 0
Atwl dh 4 0 2 0 Rhm rf 4 0 0 0
Brne c 3 0 0 0 Cprn ss 4 1 2 0
Wbr 1b 3 0 0 0 Sfrt 2b 4 1 2 0
Ngrt ss 3 0 0 0 Hbr c 2 0 0 0
Smth ss 1 1 1 1 Mlr c 2 2 2 0
Totals 36 4 8 4 Totals 33 5 9 3
Fairbanks 300 000 001 —4
Peninsula 000 000 401 —5
HR — Aluko, Smith. SF — Boggs. SH — Piscotty. SB — Wang, Seifert. CS — Washam, Chapuran. E — Connolly, Powers, Darrow, Seifert. LOB — Panners 8, Oilers 10. DP — Oilers 1.
IP H R ER BB SO
Panners
Powers 5 3 0 0 2 2
Hayes 1 2 2 2 1 1
Ferrell, L 2 1-3 4 3 1 1 3
Oilers
Smith 4 5 3 0 1 1
Lillie 3 0 0 0 1 2
Huang, W 2 3 1 1 0 0
WP — Powers. PB — Browne. HB — Hayes, Huang.
T — 2:28.
