Panners take series finale from Miners
It took four games, but the Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks found their bats just in time to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Mat-Su Miners, winning 12-4 after dropping the first game of the Fourth of July doubleheader at Growden Memorial Park by a 6-1 count.
The Panners received a little help from the Miners pitching staff that walked 11 batters and hit two more, and the Panners turned those mistakes into runs, something they'd struggled to do all series.
"We came together," said left fielder Mike Lissman, who drove in four of the Panners runs. "We needed to find a way to get it done somehow, some way. That's kind of the way baseball goes."
The split moved the Panners record to 4-7 in the Alaska Baseball League, and 9-10 overall while Mat-Su now stands at 9-6, 12-7.
The Panners have an off day today and start a three-game series with the Anchorage Bucs at 7 p.m. Thursday.
After getting one run in the first inning of the nightcap, the Panners used Miner miscues in the third to break the game open.
First baseman Geoff Byrns led off the inning by drawing a five-pitch walk, and advanced to second on designated hitter Beau Mills' broken bat single. Mills was safe at first after sliding to beat second baseman Travis Coulter to the bag.
Lissman's bases-clearing triple netted two of his game-high four RBI and a single by Matt Stevens drove in Lissman.
It looked like the Panners' rally was over when second baseman Joe Persichina sent a ground ball to Coulter that appeared to be a tailor-made double play, but Coulter booted the ball allowing Stevens to go to third.
Jovanny Bramasco then rapped a sharp grounder that Miner third baseman John Hee couldn't handle, allowing Stevens to score.
One final Miner error, this time by right fielder Donald Brown, allowed Persichina to score making it a 6-0 ball game.
Miner starter Craig Bennigson would finish the third, but would not come out for the fourth after giving up five earned runs on four hits and four walks, while hitting one batter.
The Panners would bat around in the fifth inning, adding five more runs, including a solo home run by catcher Brad Schwarzenbach, his first hit as a Goldpanner.
The Panners scored their final run on a solo shot by right fielder Stevens to lead off the seventh.
After managing only three hits in the first game, the Panners knew they had to find a way to get men on base or be swept.
"We've just got to start playing hard and hitting the ball," shortstop Mark Thompson said. "I mean, we're not getting many hits on the board. We've just got to start playing hard and hitting the ball hard."
The 12 runs were more then Panners pitcher Sean Timmons needed, as he pitched nine strong innings for his first complete game on the year.
Timmons, who is in his tenth year with the Panners, struck out two batters leaving him only one strikeout shy of tying the Panners' career strikeout mark of 273 held by Brent Strom.
Things got a little heated in the fifth inning when Thompson was hit by a Steve Kost pitch.
Panners head coach Ed Cheff stormed toward home plate from his spot in the third base coach's box and started screaming toward the Miners dugout.
"They thought we were throwing at him," Miners head coach Matt Dorey said of the incident. "(But) that never comes from our organization. We don't believe in that. That's not the way I play baseball. We're here for young kids, not to get them hurt."
It was the second time that a ball came near Thompson while he was in the batters box on Tuesday. In the first game, a pitch sailed behind Thompson, and he got into a verbal altercation with Miners starter Chris Wietlispach. Both benches cleared, in what Cheff termed a "misunderstanding," and both teams were given a warning.
Thompson was upset and said the Miners were throwing at him.
But Wietlispach said that he was just trying to get Thompson to back away from the plate.
"It was just a purpose pitch that had to be made, I wouldn't take it back," Wietlispach said. "He's crowding the plate every at-bat."
The verbal sparring was the only fire seen from the Panners offense in the first game, as they managed only one hit off Wietlispach thorough six innings.
"It felt good," Wietlispach said of his outing. "I felt real good in the bullpen. I'm on like seven days rest so I had a lot in the tank. I was working curveball, fastball, change-up, slider and my change-up was my out pitch."
Mills put the Panners on the board in the ninth when he sent a Wietlispach change-up over the scoreboard in right field.
"He just put a good swing on a bad change-up and that's what happens," Wietlispach said.
Will Morgan took the loss for the Panners giving up five runs on nine hits in five innings of work.
Dorey said that he was proud of the way his team faced up to the challenge of playing back-to-back doubleheaders, especially his pitchers.
"When you play this many games in a row, everybody has to contribute, and they did that," Dorey "I'm proud of this staff and of this club."
Staff Writer Adam Raeder can be reached at 459-7583 or araeder@newsminer.com
