The Peninsula Oilers bats fell silent Thursday night in a 3-1 loss to the Anchorage Glacier Pilots at Mulcahy Stadium.
Anchorage starter Matthew Sanchez carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning for the Pilots, and tied a 2019 Alaska Baseball League season high with 12 strikeouts.
More importantly, the Oilers fell to 12-25 this summer, a half game behind the Chinooks (11-23) for the fourth and final playoff spot. The Chinooks beat the Mat-Su Miners 9-4 on Thursday to surpass the Oilers. The Pilots improved to 9-2 against the Oilers this summer.
Peninsula’s Jaden Fein broke up the no-hitter with two outs in the top of the seventh with a single over the head of center fielder Dayton Calicdan. The Pilots outhit the Oilers 9-3 overall, with Bobby Goodloe, Calvin Farris and Fein notching the only hits.
Farris made sure to ruin the shutout for the Pilots with an RBI bloop single with one out in the top of the ninth.
The Oilers will need a kick start to avoid missing the ABL playoffs. The team faces the Miners tonight at 6 p.m. at Palmer’s Hermon Brothers Field, then wrap up their road trip Saturday with a 7 p.m. clash with the Chinooks.
From there, the Oilers finish the regular season with a five-game home stand against the Anchorage Bucs (25-9), who lead the ABL standings by 4.5 games over the Miners.
Thursday at Mulcahy, the Pilots got off to a 2-0 start on solo homers from Zach Morgan and Daniel Mendez. Morgan ripped a solo homer over the wall in the second inning to start the scoring for Anchorage, and Mendez matched him in the third. Alex Baeza added to the lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to put the Pilots up 3-0.
Jake Fenn turned in a solid start on the mound for the Oilers, striking out four and giving up three runs in six innings of work. Fenn scattered eight hits and three walks. Robbie Knowles finished the game with two frames of scoreless relief, giving up just one hit while whiffing two.
