The Peninsula Oilers had a successful Sunday at the 2018 Alaska Baseball League All-Star Game and Home Run Derby at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.
The day started with a series of firsts at the Home Run Derby, with both Oilers advancing to the final for the first time in the form of Ryan Koch and Chad Bible. Koch was able to prevail, becoming the first Oilers player to win the derby.
Then the American League team, which was coached by Oilers head coach Kyle Brown and was made up of Oilers, Anchorage Bucs and a few Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks, notched a 7-5 victory over the National League in the All-Star Game.
Peninsula pitchers played a major role in the game, combining for four shutout innings.
Mike Lopez got the start due to leading the league in ERA and put up a scoreless inning while striking out one. In the third inning, Tevin Murray also put a goose egg on the scoreboard while striking out one. In the sixth, Andrew Lopez worked out of a hit and a walk to escape unscathed, while Tre Brown pitched a scoreless eighth inning.
On offense, Bible was 1 for 4 with an RBI single. Grant Wood had a run for the Oilers.
Koch was 0 for 2, Paul Kunst was 1 for 2 and Ryan Novis was 0 for 3.
Matt Amrhein also was an All-Star for the Oilers, but was not available to pitch.
The American League went up 1-0 in the fourth on an RBI double by Willy Escala of the Bucs. In the sixth, the lead swelled to 4-0 when Troy Claunch of the Bucs knocked in Wood and JC Correa of the Bucs had a two-run single.
In the bottom of the seventh, the National League cut the gap to 4-2 on RBI singles by Bailey Collins of the Chinooks and Tyler Bosetti of the Mat-Su Miners.
In the top of the eighth, American League re-established control with an RBI single by Jace VanDeBrake of the Bucs, and RBI double by Jake Vieth of the Bucs and an RBI single by Bible.
But in the bottom of the ninth, National League made things interesting against Adrian Mardueno of the Bucs. National League cut the gap to 7-5 and had runners on first and third before Mardueno struck out Austin Pinorini of the Miners to end the game.
The Oilers stay at Mulcahy to jump back into league play at 7 p.m. today against the Anchorage Bucs.
