The Anchorage Bucs defeated the Peninsula Oilers 7-4 on Tuesday in Alaska Baseball League play at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai.
This was the first game of a five-game series. The teams also play at 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
At 10-2, the Bucs are the only team in the league above .500. The Oilers are 5-5, the Mat-Su Miners are 6-7, the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks are 4-7 and the Anchorage Glacier Pilots are 6-10.
The game started as pitchers dual. Eddie Leon kept the explosive Bucs offense in check for five innings, giving up no runs on three hits.
Miners pitcher Mike Sarhatt also was dominant until running into trouble in the fifth and failing to get out of the inning.
The Oilers got four runs in the inning on just one hit. That was a big two-out, two-RBI triple by Cole Dawson to make it 4-0.
Also in the inning, Cole Wilson, who was 2 for 3, was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Zakary Farris had a sac fly.
Bucs relievers Jeremiah Arnett, Brody Purcell and Eli Lipinski would shut the Oilers out on three hits the rest of the way to give the Bucs a chance to rally.
Anchorage got three runs in the sixth and three runs in the seventh off Oilers reliever Colby Reynolds. The Oilers defense, which had five errors in the game, made it so half of the runs yielded by Reynolds were unearned. He gave up two hits in those two innings of work.
Mose Hayes, a graduate of Homer High School, gave up a run on two hits in two innings.
For the Bucs, Zane Kelly was 2 for 3 with three runs and Josh Hankins was 2 for 3 with a run and two RBIs.
