The Peninsula Oilers dropped a 4-1 decision to the Anchorage Bucs on Friday before rallying for a 5-4 victory Saturday in Alaska Baseball League play at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai.
“Hopefully we carry this into the next one — carry the momentum and feeling that we have,” said Alec Weigel, Saturday’s winning pitcher, in a postgame interview on 1140 AM. “Hopefully our pitching and our hitting can both pick it up a little bit.”
The Oilers are now 4-11 in the Alaska Baseball League. With the Anchorage Glacier Pilots and Mat-Su Miners still playing Saturday night, the Miners lead the league with a 10-6 record, while the Chugiak Chinooks are second at 10-7, the Anchorage Bucs are third at 8-7 and the Anchorage Glacier Pilots are fourth at 7-8. The top four teams make the playoffs.
The big rally for the Oilers on Saturday came in the eighth inning, with the Oilers entering the bottom of the frame trailing 3-1. John Olmstead led off with a double, then Garrett Pennington finished a 3-for-4 day by singling to score Olmstead.
Henry Novicki then had his second bunt single of the game to put runners on first and second. A ground-out put runners on second and third before the Bucs went to the bullpen to bring in David Christie for Ryan Delgado, who ended up with the loss.
Dylan Ditzenberger then greeted Christie with a three-run home run that put the Oilers up 5-3.
“The way the ball flies in Alaska is not really well, so I really got lucky with it going over the fence,” Ditzenberger said on 1140 AM after the game.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Weigel finished off the win. Weigel allowed a run in the ninth, his first earned run in 14 1-3 innings worked this season, but the Bucs rally would go no further. Weigel pitched five innings, giving up two hits and a run, while walking one and striking out six.
“My confidence is definitely growing,” Weigel said on 1140 AM. “I came up here so that I could grow my confidence. I had a rough freshman year. I wanted to come up here and get back at it, and that’s what I’ve done.”
Ben Briggs started for the Oilers, going four innings and giving up three runs on a hit.
In the second inning, the Oilers jumped ahead 1-0 when Pennington started the inning with a double. Novicki then put runners on first and third with no outs on a bunt single.
Novicki was thrown out stealing, but Ben Grunberg singled to score Pennington.
The Bucs came back in the fourth inning to take a 3-1 lead.
Friday, the Oilers dropped a 4-1 decision to the Bucs.
The Oilers received solid pitching in the game, with starter Lee Atkinson striking out seven in four innings. Mose Hayes, a graduate of Homer High School, also had three strikeouts on the four batters he faced. Oilers pitchers struck out 12 batters in the game.
Oilers head coach Larry McCann said Friday’s game continued a pattern where the Oilers pitch and play defense well, but have trouble on offense when runners are in scoring position.
“We pitch really, really well,” McCann said. “We’ve had plenty of opportunities. We just can’t push the runs across.”
Peninsula continued to have trouble scoring runs. The Bucs took a 2-0 lead in the first inning, then the Oilers cut it to 2-1 in the second inning when Johnny Olmstead scored on a single by Andrew Sojka.
The Oilers would end up leaving six on base, while the Bucs would score run in the seventh and eighth innings, to take the victory.
McCann said the ABL is a developmental league, so it is hard to ask a player to give up at-bats to play small ball when runners get on base. Foreshadowing the key bunts by Novicki in Saturday’s game, McCann did say the Oilers will have to start playing some small ball if scoring runs continues to be a problem.
“They’re all good kids,” McCann said. “A 10-day road trip was a tough way to start the season.”
The Oilers conclude the series with the Bucs with a 2 p.m. game today followed by 6 p.m. games Monday and Tuesday.
Peninsula Oilers reliever Mose Hayes delivers to the Anchorage Bucs on Friday at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
