One game playoff to decide Panners' fate
July 27, 2000, Daily News-Miner

Staff report

Second place in the Alaska Baseball League will be decided in a one-game playoff.

The Mat-Su Miners defeated the Kenai Peninsula Oilers 6-0 on Wednesday, leaving the Miners and Alaska Goldpanners with identical 16-13 marks in league play.

There will be a one-game playoff at 5 p.m. on Friday in Anchorage to determine the second-place team in the league and a spot in the National Baseball Congress tournament in Wichita, Kansas.

The Goldpanners would have finished second outright if the Oilers had beaten the Miners on Wednesday.

"That sure would've simplified things had Kenai won, but this is probably the way it should be settled anyway," Goldpanners general manager Don Dennis said. "We went 3-3 against each other during the season, so this will settle the series."

The Kenai Peninsula Oilers repeated as league champions with a 20-9 record. The Oilers placed second at the NBC tournament last year.

The playoff game between the Miners and Panners is part of the regularly scheduled Anchorage Bucs Wooden Bat Invitational. The game will be a nine-inning, untimed contest instead of a seven-inning, two-hour affair like the other tournament games, however.

There will be a coin flip to determine the home team.

The Panners start the Bucs' invitational with a 7:45 p.m. game against Anchorage today.

On Friday, the Panners face the Bay Area Stars at 2:15 p.m. before playing Mat-Su.  Dennis said playing two games in a row will not necessarily hurt the Panners chances to win the playoff game.

"There is some divided opinion here on the matter, but I think it is fine," Dennis said. "Instead of having batting practice we will have a seven-inning game that is under the two-hour time limit."

The Panners leave for Anchorage at 8 a.m. today.

A hot streak of play put the Panners in position to play for second place. At one point this season the Panners were 8-12 in the ABL and 14-14 overall. Since then they have been on a tear, winning nine of their last 11 games.

The Panners have the highest batting average in the league at .266 and the second lowest team earned run average at 3.19. The Oilers led the league in both categories.

July 27, 2000 Daily News-Miner