Mills Stymies Miners

It was a showdown of the two top teams in the Alaska Baseball League at Hermon Brothers Field on Tuesday night. The Peninsula Oilers and the Matsu Miners would both be sending their aces to the mound. Jordan Mills (St. Marys) for the Oilers and Steven Bruce (Oklahoma) for the Miners. Jordan Mills stole the show pitching eight innings of scoreless baseball to pick up the win with a 5-0 Oilers victory.

Miners Started Steven Bruce entered play not allowing a run in 18.1 innings. That streak was on the line early as he loaded the bases with one out before notching back to back strike outs to escape the jam unharmed. Mills was in a jam of his own in the first inning as the Miners had runners on the corners with two outs. Mills was able to get out of the mess by striking out his college team mate and the Miners hottest hitter Nick Rosso (St. Marys).

Bruce's scoreless streak was broken in the top of the second when the Oilers had the bases loaded with one out and Manny Reyes (Western Illinois) scored and a wild pitch. The Oilers would get there second run of the game when Manny Acosta (Florida Tech) scored and another wild pitch.
The Oilers came back in the third and scored their third run of the ball game when Troy Channing (St. Marys) homered to left.

The Oilers would go on to score two more runs in the 7th inning to pad their lead to 5-0 and go on to win by the same score. Jordan Mills went on to win his second game of the season (2-1) while Steven Bruce lost his first game (2-1). The Miners where only able to collect three hits, one of those from Dominick Francia (UL-Lafayette) who extended his hitting streak to seven games. The Miners fall to 7-3 in Alaska Baseball League play.

Dominick Francia extended his hitting streak to 7 games

The Miners return home tomorrow night for a 7pm game against the Peninsula Oilers for game 2 of the series at Hermon Brothers Field, with gates opening at 6pm.