Miners take down Bucs for first league win

Four scoreless innings in relief from Colton Oullette propelled the Mat-Su Miners (1-1) to a win over the Anchorage Bucs (1-2) 5-3 for their first league win of the season on Saturday night at Mulcahy Stadium. 

The three Miner pitchers of Jaxon Baker, Oullette, and Auden Pankonin combined for 13 strikeouts on the night and only 2 walks. Much improved from the nine walks given up back on Wednesday. 

After falling into an early 2-0 deficit, Mat-Su's first two hits came back-to-back in the top of the third from Tyler Akers and Austin Park. Both came around to score after Jackson Babcock got all the way to second on an error by the Bucs. The Miners scratched one run across in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innnings, which proved plentiful after Oullette shutdown the Bucs in his relief appearance. He surrendered no runs on two hits with 5 strikeouts in his four innings of work. 

Diesel Toth drove in the run in the sixth with and RBI single to score Babcock. In the seventh Matt Bline hit a sacrifice fly to score Park, who scored two runs on the night. The final insurance run came from Will Millard, whose RBI single in the eight brought home Alexander Pearson. 

For Anchorage, they didn't plate a run after the third inning. Two came in the bottom of the first rather quickly, but after an unearned run scratched its way across in the third, the Bucs were shutdown by the Miners pitching staff. 

The Miners take on the Anchorage Adult League All-Stars on Sunday, June, 14 at 4 p.m. before two-straight road games in Chugiak against the Chinooks followed with a home game against the Chinooks to complete a 5-day stretch of games. All three week games against the Chinooks start at 6 p.m. You can stream all Miners games on the Mat-Su Miners YouTube channel.