The Peninsula Oilers pulled off a 2-1 extra-innings victory over the Mat-Su Miners on Thursday evening on a steal of home plate at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.
Marshal Boggs reached home on a bases-loaded steal in the top of the 10th inning when Mat-Su catcher Tyler Wyatt misplayed a pitch, scoring the first run of the game. Boggs was rushing home on a suicide squeeze with Darius Hill at the plate, but Hill did not make contact on the bunt attempt. Brody Wofford added a second run on an RBI ground-out by Hill.
In the bottom of the frame, Michael Donadio hit a one-out triple, then scored on an RBI single by Levi Jordan, but Oilers reliever Ryan Lillie recorded the save with a strikeout of Garrison Schwartz.
The win improves Peninsula to 5-2 in Alaska Baseball League play, and 8-6 overall.
The Miners are 6-5 this season, but are 0-3 against the Oilers, having scored one run in 28 innings of play.
The Peninsula defense shined, helping the Oilers to the win even though Mat-Su had 10 base hits. The Oilers won with two hits on the day.
Oilers pitcher Billy Oxford started and tossed 6 1-3 scoreless innings, giving up six hits and three walks while striking out seven.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Miners got two singles from Schwartz and Jake Scudder before the first out, but Oxford struck out the final three batters to get out of the jam.
The Miners put runners on second and third in the bottom of the seventh, forcing Dom Bazzani to take over for Oxford on the mound. Bazzani notched a put-out and a strikeout to end the inning.
In the top of the 10th, the Miners pulled reliever Connor Higgins in favor of Jordan Floyd after Higgins walked Boggs and Wofford with no outs, and Huber laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners into scoring position. Alex Seifert was intentionally walked to load the bases.
With Hill up to the plate, Boggs scored when the pitch got away from Wyatt on an attempted bunt by Hill.
The Oilers and Miners will play again tonight at 7 p.m. at Hermon Brothers Field.
Wednesday night in Fairbanks, the Oilers concluded the Midnight Sun Game, taking a 9-2 loss. The Panners have not lost in the Midnight Sun Game since 2007.
Play in the game was originally suspended at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning with the Oilers trailing 8-0.
Thursday
Oilers 2, Miners 1
Oilers AB R H BI Miners AB R H BI
Hill, cf 5 0 0 1 Stlr, cf 3 0 1 0
Psty, ss 5 0 0 0 Jrdn, 2b 4 0 2 1
Wng, dh 4 0 0 0 Swtz, lf 5 0 2 0
Dwt, 1b 2 0 1 0 Scdr, 1b 4 0 1 0
Szpk, rf 2 0 0 0 Bsnt, ss 4 0 1 0
Wshm, ph 1 0 1 0 Wytt, c 4 0 1 0
Ruhm, rf 1 0 0 0 Mtgm, rf 3 0 1 0
Bggs, 3b 2 1 0 0 Lee, 3b 3 0 0 0
Wfrd, lf 3 1 0 0 Nkns, dh 2 0 0 0
Huber, c 2 0 0 0 Dndo, dh 2 1 1 0
Sfrt, 2b 2 0 0 0
Totals 29 2 2 1 Totals 34 1 10 1
Oilers 000 000 000 2 —2
Miners 000 000 000 1 —1
SH — Huber, Jordan, Lee. SB — Boggs (2). CS — Huber (2), Stotler (1), Bissonette (1).
LOB — Oilers 6, Miners 8.
IP H R ER BB SO
Oilers
Oxford 6.1 6 0 0 3 7
Bazzani 1.2 1 0 0 0 2
Allen, W 1.0 1 0 0 0 2
Lillie, S 1.0 2 1 1 0 3
Miners
Shelton 6.2 2 0 0 3 8
Higgins, L 2.1 0 2 2 3 2
Floyd 1.0 0 0 0 1 1
T — 3:09.
Tuesday, Wednesday
Panners 9, Oilers 2
Oilers AB R H BI Panners AB R H BI
Hill, cf 4 0 2 0 Mcrs 2b 5 1 2 1
Pcty 3b 5 0 0 0 Sth 3b 5 0 1 1
Wng lf 4 0 1 0 Hrrr lf 2 1 1 1
DWt 1b 4 0 0 0 Btpo lf 1 0 0 0
Rhm rf 1 0 0 0 Alko rf 2 1 0 0
Spk rf 2 1 2 0 Lrkn rf 2 0 1 1
Wfrd dh 3 0 0 0 Awll dh 4 1 0 0
Bgs 3b 1 0 0 0 Cnly 1b 3 2 2 1
Whm c 4 1 2 0 Wbr 1b 2 0 0 0
Cprn ss 4 0 0 0 Kzck cf 4 1 3 2
Sfrt 2b 4 0 2 1 Bwne c 2 1 1 0
—- — — — — Mlt c 2 0 0 0
—- — — — — Ngte ss 4 1 2 0
Totals 36 2 9 1 Totals 38 9 13 7
Peninsula 000 000 002 —2
Panners 050 300 10X —9
2B — Szpik, Mascarenas. SB — Wang. E — Washam, Chapuran. LOB — Oilers 9, Panners 11. DP — Oilers 1.
IP H R ER BB SO
Oilers
Hamilton 1 1-3 5 5 5 1 3
Smith 1 2-3 3 0 0 0 0
Huber 1-3 2 3 3 2 0
Montgomery 1 2-3 1 0 0 0 2
Huang 2 2 1 1 2 2
Piscotty 1 0 0 0 0 1
Panners
Fernandez 5 3 0 0 1 8
Torsen 1 1 0 0 0 1
Ferrell 3 5 2 2 0 1
WP — Huang, Ferrell. HB — Hamilton, Fernandez.
