The Peninsula Oilers ended their 50th anniversary season Wednesday at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai the same way they started it — with Mose Hayes, a product of Homer High School and the American Legion Post 20 Twins — winning a sudden-death ballgame.
The Oilers defeated the Anchorage Glacier Pilots 6-5 in Alaska Baseball League play to end the regular season on a seven-game winning streak. Peninsula also won its last 10 games at home to finish 16-3 in the friendly confines of Seymour Park.
Peninsula, at 23-17, finishes third in the league and will go on the road Saturday for the first round of the playoffs against the team that finishes second in the league.
The Anchorage Bucs lead the league at 26-12, the Miners are second at 23-14, the Pilots are fourth at 13-27 and the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks are just a half game behind at 11-26 as they battle for the final playoff spot.
A large crowd came out for the final home game of the season and was greeted by a day so sunny and warm the Oilers chose to go sleeveless under their black vest jerseys.
Peninsula breezed to a 5-0 lead after five innings, but the Pilots had the gap down to 5-4 after seven. In the ninth, Anchorage was down to its last strike when Luke Stulga doubled to score Marcus Sanders.
Hayes came on in relief in the 10th inning. He had already appeared to write the perfect ending to his four-year Oilers career Saturday, July 27, against the Pilots, when he combined with Cody New for a one-hit shutout.
Known for his calm demeanor on the mound, Hayes knew he was tempting fate by trying to ride off into the sunset for the second time.
“I was a little nervous,” he said. “I thought, ‘This is going to go really good, or really bad.’ It’d be a hell of a way to end it either way.”
Hayes said walking the first batter in the 10th inning did not help the nerves. He gave credit to catcher Braden Smith for getting him settled in and getting out of the scrape in the 10th.
“Braden did an amazing job there, just knowing the hitters better than I could and picking the right pitches,” Hayes said. “We started finding it with some offspeed and that helped establish the fastball too.”
When neither team scored in the 10th, the game went to sudden death. The home team gets to choose offense or defense, and Oilers head coach Larry McCann chose defense.
The offensive team gets a runner on first to start the inning, and if the offensive team doesn’t score, the defensive team wins. If the offensive team scores, it wins.
The Pilots sacrificed the runner to second, leading to an intentional walk. Hayes then got the next two batters to wrap up the win.
This is the third sudden-death win for Hayes in the format just started by the ABL last season. He won once last year and beat the Miners 2-1 in the sudden-death home opener June 18. The Oilers were 3-0 in sudden-death games this season, choosing defense as the home team each time.
McCann has been head coach in each of the four years for Hayes.
“The first year he came out, it was like, man, this guy doesn’t throw very hard, but he still got some outs,” McCann said. “In that first year, we didn’t use him that much, but we used him when we needed to.
“He was always there for us.”
According to the Oilers all-time roster, only two other players have played four seasons for the Oilers — Dennis Machado and Paul John Zobeck.
“I’d just like to thank the whole organization,” Hayes said. “It’s been fun and they’ve done a lot for me.”
Hayes wasn’t the only local pitcher in the game. Colby Sturman, an incoming senior at Soldotna High School, pitched a scoreless seventh for the Pilots.
Eddie Leon went the first seven innings for the Oilers, giving up four runs on eight hits. Emerson Fleck gave up a run and a hit in two innings.
Zakary Farris led the Oilers offense with two runs.
McCann said the team is playing well and ready for the playoffs, he just wishes the Oilers could have picked up a few more wins during the season so they could host a series.
“We have all of our pitchers, pretty much, that have been here and done the bulk of the work,” McCann said.
Troy Sanders of the Anchorage Glacier Pilots gets back to first base safely in front of Peninsula Oilers’ Cody New on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
