Beau Mills
By ADAM RAEDER, Staff Writer
The Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks and the Athletes in Action Fire were two teams headed in opposite directions Sunday after a 7-2 Panners victory at Growden Memorial Park.
The loss was the Fire’s eighth straight and their 11th loss in the last 12 games, while the Panners have climbed into a tie for fourth in the Alaska Baseball League standings.
“It’s nice seeing our team come together like it is,” said Panners designated hitter Beau Mills, who drove in two of the Panners runs. “It’s nice, you know, going through a little struggle and seeing the team come together and gel together.”
And the Panners offense is gelling together, feeding off their top two hitters, shortstop Mark Thompson and center fielder Chu Yuan-Chin, who have reached base safely in eight of their last 10 at-bats.
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“The offense is doing a great job,” said Mills. “Mark Thompson is getting on base almost every at-bat. Chu is driving doubles. I don’t know how many times we had runners at second and third less than two outs today. Our offense is coming along, and we’re all doing good one through nine.”
For Panners starting pitcher Chris Kissock, the run support was a welcome sight.
“It’s good to see our offense get going, and get us some runs,” Kissock said. “I haven’t had that my last three starts. You’ve got that behind you and you pitch well through that.”
While the Panner offense is clicking, the Fire are struggling to find their bats, as they’ve seen their team batting average drop almost 100 points over their eight game skid.
And while the top of the Panners lineup sizzled Sunday, the Fire’s top three struggled, going a combined 0-for-9.
Fire head coach Phil Plantier said that the only answer to his team’s struggles is hard work.
“There’s really only one thing you can do when you’re struggling, and that is to work hard and make sure you go out and compete.” Plantier said. “As a player the way you get yourself through real tough times is to make sure that no one is working harder than you.”
But no matter how hard the Fire worked, they couldn’t get anything going against Kissock, who kept the ball low in the strike zone all night.
“I just tried to throw strikes,” said Kissock, who struck out seven Fire batters. “I was getting a lot of ground balls. That’s what my game is. In the eighth I got a little tired there, and gave up a few runs.”
The Panners bats got hot early, giving them a 2-0 lead through two innings.
Second baseman Joe Persichina led off the bottom half of the second by reaching on an error by Fire second baseman Brian Asbill. Persichina moved to third on Matt Steven’s double to right, putting runners at second and third. Fire starter Chris Albrecht got the next two Panners to pop out, but Thompson sent a hard shot to right field that plated both runners.
The Panners would pick up one more in the third after Mills was hit by a pitch and came around to score on a Jessie Mier double.
Albrecht was chased in the fourth after giving up an RBI triple to Chu and a run scoring single to Mills.
Albrecht managed just 3 1/3 innings on the night, giving up five runs–three earned–on 57 pitches.
The Fire would pick up their only two runs in the eighth inning when shortstop Danny Morrow led off with a single, and Kissock issued walks to Steve Shaver and Chris Ahearn to load the bases. Those were the only walks Kissock issued all night.
Xavier Scruggs, who leads the Fire with 24 RBI, drove in Morrow on a groundout to third, and Shaver scored on an RBI single by Ben Marshall.
Fire right fielder Blake Stouffer left the game in the sixth inning after being hit in the knee by a pitch. Plantier said Stouffer is day-to-day.
It’s another setback for the Fire, who already lost starting catcher Brian Hendrickson for the year after doctors in Kansas City found that the injuries he suffered from being hit by a fastball in the face earlier in the season were worse than originally suspected.
The Panners will play game two of their series tonight, a series which Mills says the Panners must win if they want to remain in contention for the ABL title.
“I think every series from here on out is really important, but you’ve got to take it one series at a time,” Mills said. “This one is very important, and I think it has even more importance because we’re going on the road. We need to get something going into our road series and take some road games.”
Staff Writer Adam Raeder can be reached at 459-7583 or araeder@newsminer.com .
