Peninsula Oilers

The ABL-leading Peninsula Oilers missed a chance to put pressure on their pursuers with a 5-2 loss to the Athletes In Action Fire on Wednesday night.  The loss enables the idle Mat-Su Miners to climb within two and a half games of first place.  The Miners have three league games to play while the Oilers have five. Fading fast are the Anchorage Bucs, who lost for the fourth straight time, 3-1 to the Glacier Pilots.  Aaron Judge and Kavin Keyes each drove in a run in the Pilots two-run fourth inning, while seven Pilots pitchers combined to retire the final 16 batters of the evening.

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.

A committee of Glacier Pilots pitchers shut out the first place Peninsula Oilers on Monday night, holding the Oilers to just three base hits in a 2-0 victory.  Matt Vinson and Dustin Torchio drove in the Pilots only runs, on back to back RBI hits in the third inning. The loss sends the Oilers to 19 and 10 in the Alaska Baseball League, still three and a half games ahead of the second place Anchorage Bucs.  The Bucs fell to the Mat-Su Miners on Monday, 8-4.  The Miners collected four runs in the first and padded their lead with three in the fourth inning.

The Anchorage Glacier Pilots won in their final at-bat for the second straight night, defeating the first place Peninsula Oilers 3-1.  Pinch hitter DC Legg singled home the go-ahead run in the ninth inning, and four Pilots pitchers combined to allow just three Oilers hits.  The result trims Kenai's lead in the Alaska Baseball League standings to two games over the idle Anchorage Bucs.  The Oilers drop to 17 and 9 in league play....

Troy Channing provided all the offense the Peninsula Oilers would need, smacking a three-run homer in the top of the first inning in Kenai's 3-1 win over the Anchorage Glacier Pilots on Wednesday night. The Oilers, who have led the Alaska Baseball League for most of July, won for the 10th time in their last 12 games and are now 17 and 8 in league play. Earlier in the day, the second-place Anchorage Bucs remained three games behind the Oilers with a 3-2 victory over the AIA Fire in 10 Innings.

Joe Winterburn cranked a two-run homer in the bottom of the 13th inning to lift the Anchorage Bucs to a 6-4 win over Peninsula Oilers in a key Alaska Baseball League game on Tuesday.  The victory enables the Bucs to climb within three games of the league-leading Oilers.  The Bucs had blown a 4-0 lead before Winterburn's heroics. Elsewhere in the ABL, Brady Hohl delivered the go-ahead two run single in the fifth inning to help the Glacier Pilots defeat the AIA Fire, 8-6.  Hohl finished the game 2 for 5 with three RBI's.  The Pilots, ( 13-16 in league )

Patrick Wisdom of the Peninsula Oilers and Adam Martin of the Mat-Su Miners continued their home run derby in regular season play on Monday.  One day after Martin defeated Wisdom in the finals of the ABL's first home run derby contest on All-Star Sunday, both players belted homers to help their teams to victory. Wisdom connected for his league-leading fourth homer of ABL action in the Oilers 8-4 victory over the Pilots.  The win gives Kenai a 16 and 7 ABL record, good for a four game lead over the Anchorage Bucs.