Peninsula Oilers

Teams representing the Alaska Baseball League have won 16 titles in the 76 year history of the National Baseball Congress World Series.  However, it's been nine years since the ABL produced its most recent champion.  The Peninsula Oilers feel they're due. Tanner Rust went 3 for 3 at the plate and Boomer Collins brought home two runs on a double in a six-run fourth inning to lift the Oilers to the championship round of the NBC tournament...

The 2011 Alaska Baseball League champion Peninsula Oilers made new hires in leadership positions on Monday, with the naming of James Clark as general manager and John Stevens as head coach for the 2012 season. Both men are promoted from within the organization.  Clark has served on the Oilers' board of directors for several years and has also served as president/chief executive officer for the Kenai Peninsula Boys & Girls Club.  Clark replaces Shawn Maltby, who left the franchise following the 2011 season to become the GM of the Anchorage Bucs.

ABL Player of the Year Mike Miller homered and drove in five runs as the Peninsula Oilers stayed alive in the National Baseball Congress World Series with a 9-2 win over the San Diego Waves in the elimination bracket Thursday in Wichita, Kansas. Kenai jumped out to a 5-0 lead through five innings on the strength of a three-run third inning.  Tanner Rust, who drove in a pair of runs, gave the Oilers a 3-0 cushion on a sacrifice fly.  Stephen Branca and Boomer Collins punctuated the rally with RBI singles.

The newest franchise in the Alaska Baseball League wasted little time getting comfortable on Wednesday night. The Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks, a relocated team formerly known as the Athletes In Action Fire, topped the Anchorage Bucs, 3-2 on opening night of league play to earn the first win in the new team's history.  The Chinooks took their only lead of the game in the eighth inning when the Bucs' Garrrett Mattlage overthrew first...

Entering Monday's play, the Anchorage Glacier Pilots and Peninsula Oilers were tied atop the Alaska Baseball League standings with only two head to head meetings left.  By the end of Tuesday, the Pilots had resolved the tie in resounding fashion. Following Monday's 10-1 victory, the Pilots battered the Oilers again, 12-0 to move two games ahead in the race for the ABL title.  The Pilots improve to 19 and 11 in league play, dropping the Oilers to 17 and 13 with 10 games remaining.

For the third time in four nights, the Anchorage Glacier Pilots have won a home game on their final swing of the bat.  Axel Johnson, out of TCU, delivered a pinch-hit RBI single in the bottom of the 11th inning to beat the Anchorage Bucs on Thursday night, 7-6.  The win also marked their third over the rival Bucs in the teams' four-game series. Late inning heroics have become a trend for the Pilots.  On Monday, Johnson's TCU teammate Kevin Cornelius clubbed a game-ending homer in the 13th inning to knock off the Peninsula Oilers, 1-0.  And in Tuesday's second game of a doubleheader, Jordan Luplow singled home the winning run in the bottom of the final inning.

Dennis Mattingly, the man who founded the Anchorage Bucs baseball team in 1980 and has been running the organization ever since, will step down as general manager.  The Bucs say that Shawn Maltby, currently the general manager of the Peninsula Oilers, will take his place, effective September first.  Mattingly put his stamp on Alaska baseball when he formed the Bucs, then known as the Cook Inlet Bucs, a men's adult league team in Anchorage.  They soon became members of the Alaska Baseball League where they still call home.

The Peninsula Oilers reduced their magic number for clinching the Alaska Baseball League title to one with a 9-3 victory over the last place Athletes in Action Fire Thursday night in Kenai.  The Oilers improve to 20 and 12 in league play and need only one more win in their last four games or a Mat-Su Miners loss in their last three games to win the ABL crown for the first time since 2006. The Miners ( 18 and 15 in league ) eliminated the Bucs from the title chase with a 2-1 win at Mulcahy Stadium on Thursday.  Ben Graff tossed seven scoreless innings for Mat-Su.  The Bucs have now dropped five straight games and have scored only two runs in the their last 18 innings.

The Peninsula Oilers will enter the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas as champions of the Alaska Baseball League for the first time in five years.  Kenai scored the last six runs in game one of a doubleheader to beat the Athletes in Action Fire, 10-4 to improve to 21 and 12 in ABL play, good  for the necessary daylight between themselves and second place Mat-Su. The Miners also won on Friday, sending the Anchorage Bucs to their sixth consecutive loss, 5-0.  Mark Anderson pitched a complete game for Mat-Su.  The Miners raise their record to 19 and 15, but not enough to catch the Oilers with only two games left for both teams.

The Anchorage Glacier Pilots and Kenai Peninsula Oilers tied for the longest game in Alaska Baseball League history on Wednesday night, playing a 21-inning contest that lasted well over five hours.  Matt Daugherty scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 21st inning to end the marathon and give the Pilots a 4-3 win.  The teams combined to use 15 pitchers and three players batted nine times.  Among the heroes for the...