Goldpanners Get Two Critical Wins
July 21, 2000, Daily News-Miner

By RICHARD LARSON

The Alaska Goldpanners stayed alive in their hunt for a bid to the National Baseball Congress World Series with a pair of nail-biting wins over the Anchorage Glacier Pilots on Saturday.

The Panners survived a ninth-inning rally to beat the Pilots 5-4 in the first game and scored two runs in the sixth inning to win the second game 4-2 at Growden Memorial Park.

"We had some clutch hits, clutch plays, clutch pitching," said the Panners' Jeff Phelps. "We did our job. Now we just have to wait and see what happens."

The wins guaranteed that the Panners (16-13) would finish ahead of the Pilots (15-14) in the Alaska Baseball League standings and gives them a shot at catching the Mat-Su Miners (14-11) for second place and one of the league's two bids to the NBC tournament. Kenai (18-7) currently leads the league and has a tournament bid wraped up.

The Miners play four games at Kenai this week. The Panners have finished their league schedule. If the Panners and Miners finish tied, a one-game playoff will be held at a time yet to be determined.

"We pretty well did what we had to do to put ourselves in position," Panners second baseman Brooks Conrad said, referring to the team closing the league season by winning eight of its last nine league games. "This was a pressure series. We knew the team that won two out of three had a chance."

After getting pounded 14-7 by the Pilots on Friday, the Panners needed to win both games Saturday, and they did so in exciting fashion.

In the first game, the Pilots scored two runs in the ninth and had the go-ahead run at first base with one out before Brian Felten relieved a struggling David Gassner and got a strikeout and a fly out to preserve the Panners' win.

The game was tied at 2-2 in the seventh before the Panners put together a two-out rally. Phelps hit an RBI single and Ryan Garko had a two-run single to give the Panners a 5-2 lead. Phelps finished with three RBIs in the game.

The Pilots loaded the bases in the ninth with nobody out on a single, a hit batter and a walk. A sacrifice fly by Randy Walter and a single by Darrell Bowles scored runs before Felten came in and got the final two outs.

The Pilots wasted numerous scoring chances in the game. They had three hits and a walk in the seventh but failed to score because they had a runner thrown out trying to steal third and another runner thrown out at the plate by left fielder Jonah Martin.

Three more hits in the eighth inning didn't add up to any runs for the Pilots as another runner was thrown out on the basepaths by catcher Greg Sain. The Pilots then stranded two runners in the ninth. They left 11 runners on base in the game.

The Panners turned three twin killings in the game, including a great double play started by Arik Van Zandt that got the team out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the sixth.

The nightcap featured more great defense, clutch hitting and solid relief pitching by the Panners, and many more squandered scoring opportunities by the Pilots.

"That's the name of the game," Conrad said. "You have to find a way to win and we did that today."

The Pilots left nine runners on base, compared to just two by the Panners. The Panners won the scheduled seven-inning game 4-2. The contest was a makeup of a game that was rained out at Anchorage, so the Pilots were the home team.

Jonah Martin made a great diving catch and first baseman Garko snared a line drive to save at least one run in the fourth inning. Brooks Conrad dove deep behind first base to get the final out in the fifth and save another run.

"We really picked it up today," Conrad said. "We really played great defense today. We made the plays when we had to."

Conrad doubled home Martin in the sixth innings and came around to score on a pair of wild pitches to give the Panners a 4-2 lead.

Eric Doble, who got the Panners out of a jam by pitching to two batters in the first game, got the win in the second game with 2[1/3] innings of scoreless relief.

The Panners host the Bay Area All-Stars in a doubleheader that begins at 2 p.m. today.

July 22, 2000, Daily News-Miner