The Anchorage Glacier Pilots defeated the Peninsula Oilers 4-2 on Sunday in Alaska Baseball League play at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai.
The Pilots evened the current five-game series at 2-2 and now trail the Oilers in the season series 4-5. The final regular season game between the teams is Monday at 6 p.m.
The Mat-Su Miners, idle on Sunday, remained in first at 19-14, while the Anchorage Bucs (20-16) and the Pilots (19-15) are both a half game back.
The Oilers, at 14-18, are 4.5 games back, while the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks, at 12-21, are seven games back.
Anchorage led 3-0 after three innings and 4-0 after six innings, then held off the Oilers as they tried to rally in the final three innings.
Mose Hayes, of Homer High and American Legion Twins fame, got the start and took the loss.
With so many pitchers having left the Oilers late in the season, there was nobody even seated in the bullpen for Hayes’ start.
He got the team through six innings, giving up four runs — three earned — on seven hits while striking out seven, walking three and hitting one.
In the third, Garrison Berkley put the Pilots up 1-0 when he singled in Andrew Nykoluk. Will Carpenter then stretched the lead to 3-0 with a single that scored Joey Wright and Andrew Lamb.
In the sixth, the Pilots’ Jacob Stinson doubled with one out and Nathan Barraza walked. Elijah Rodriguez then singled on a sinking liner to center field. Stinson held up to see if the ball would drop and the throw of center fielder Nick Costello got away from third baseman Ty Thomas, allowing Stinson to make it 4-0.
Tai Atkins got the win in relief for the Pilots. After starter Aaron Ceniceros pitched a scoreless inning, Atkins came on and gave up two unearned runs on five hits in seven innings.
In the seventh, the Oilers cut the gap to 4-2. With one away, Brett Grupe reached on an error by Atkins, then stole second by streaking for the bag after an Atkins’ pickoff attempt caught Grupe off first.
Thomas then poked a double to right to score Grupe, and Josiah Chavez, who was 2 for 4, singled with two outs to score Thomas.
In the eighth, the Oilers had runners on second and third with two outs. Ryson Ujimori, who like Atkins is from Hawaii, was brought in to pinch hit, and Atkins put an exclamation point on his outing by striking out Ujimori to escape danger.
Reliever Max Martin came on for the Pilots in the ninth and the Oilers got runners to first and second with two away, but Martin picked Thomas off second to nail down the save.
