The Peninsula Oilers won two straight games for the first time all season by defeating the Mat-Su Miners 15-1 in eight innings Thursday in Alaska Baseball League action at Hermon Brothers Field in Palmer.
Peninsula scored the most runs of any ABL team in a game this season to enact the mercy rule after just eight innings.
The win puts the Oilers at 4-5 in the ABL as the team negotiates a 10-game road trip in 10 days to open the season.
That trip ends Friday with a 6 p.m. game against the Anchorage Bucs at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.
Peninsula then has a break until Tuesday, when the Oilers host the Bucs in the home opener at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai at 6 p.m.
The Oilers look like they’ll get through the trip in the thick of the ABL race, sitting in fourth place 1.5 games out of first place as of Thursday.
The Miners lead the league at 4-2, while the Anchorage Glacier Pilots are 4-3, the Bucs are 4-4 and the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks are 3-5.
Thursday, the Miners trailed 2-1 after the fourth, but the Oilers dominated the rest of the game, picking up five runs in the fifth, two runs in the seventh and six runs in the eighth.
The Oilers were patient enough to roll up 10 walks on Miners pitching, but also aggressive enough to rack up 10 hits, including a pair of home runs.
Nick Costello, who was 3 for 4 with three runs and four RBIs, had a two-run home run in the seventh, while Owen McElfatrick had a two-run shot in the eighth. That was the only hit the Oilers needed to score six runs in the eighth.
Also at the plate for the Oilers, Bren Wilkinson was 2 for 4 with three runs, Ben Griffin scored three runs, Khadim Diaw was 3 for 4 with three RBIs, and Drewbie Pinkston scored two runs.
Ryne Palmer had a solid start for the Oilers, going four innings and giving up a run on six hits while walking two and striking out four.
William Grimm pitched two scoreless and hitless innings for the win, walking one and striking out one.
Connor Kershaw and Homer High and American Legion Twins product Mose Hayes each pitched scoreless innings, giving up a hit and notching a strikeout.
