Six Panners Earn Honors for Summer Work
July 30, 2000, Daily News-Miner

The 2000 All-Alaska Baseball League Team was dominated by Peninsula Oilers and Alaska Goldpanners as they combined to claim 13 of the 16 spots on the all-league roster.

Panners' Greg Sain, Ryan Garko, Brooks Conrad, Barry Matthews, David Gassner and Brian Felten each earned all-league honors. The Oilers had seven members on the all-league team, including Player of the Year Jeremy Reed and Manager of the Year Gary Adcock.

In his second year as a Panner, Sain split time between catching and playing third base and he made the team as a catcher. He is one of the league's premier sluggers, leading the ABL with five home runs and 12 doubles. He has a .529 slugging percentage and .273 batting average.

Sain has also walked 23 times, scored 25 runs and knocked in in 25 runs. He has a solid .986 fielding percentage.

Garko made the all-league team at first base. He joined the Panners just as the ABL season began and currently has the best batting average (.347) among every day players on the team and the third-best average in the league. Garko has a .495 slugging percentage and a team-high .477 on-base percentage.

Garko has a .992 fielding percentage, making a number of key defensive plays during the Panners stretch run to the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan.

Second baseman Brooks Conrad is another second-year Panner and he has the league's fourth-best batting average (.331). Conrad is tied for third in the league with three triples and he also is one of the top RBI men in the ABL, driving in 28 runs.

Conrad has played in 39 of the Panners' 40 games with a team-high 148 at-bats. He leads the league in hits with 49. Conrad has 12 stolen bases and 28 runs scored.

Barry Matthews has been a designated hitter, pitcher and occasional first baseman for the Panners and he made the all-league team as a utility player.

Matthews had a .330 batting average and a .511 slugging percentage and he drove in a team-high 30 runs. Matthews is 4-3 on the mound with a 2.25 earned run average. He pitched an 11-inning complete game in the Panners 3-2 win over the Anchorage Bucs on Thursday in their first game of the Anchorage Wood Bats tournament.

Gassner and Felten rounded out the Panners all-league representatives as two of the five pitchers on the squad.

Gassner shut out the Mat-Su Miners on Saturday to propel the Panners to the National Baseball Congress World Series. Gassner is 7-1 with a 2.18 ERA. He walked only 13 batters in more than 45 innings of work.

Felten is unbeaten in four decisions on the season and has a 1.29 ERA, second lowest in the ABL. He has struck out 34 and walked 12 in 42 innings.

Rounding out the all-league team were: Peninsula Oilers shortstop Hunter Brown, Mat-Su Miners third baseman Kevin Randel, Oilers outfielders Reed and Jeff Jones, Anchorage Bucs outfielder Nick Blankenship, Oilers designated hitter Luke Simmons, Miners pitcher Josh Scott and Oilers pitchers Chris Mabeus and David Humen.

July 30, 2000, Daily News-Miner