Tony Perez has been the Alaska Goldpanners' leading threat at the plate early this season. On Wednesday, however, the junior from the University of San Diego delivered a much-needed clutch performance from the pitching mound.
With the Goldpanners desperately trying to cling to a last-inning 6-4 lead over the Mat-Su Miners, Perez relieved
Chris Dunwell with two Miners on base and nobody out in the bottom of the ninth.
He walked the first batter he faced to load the bases, then got the inning's first out on a foul fly ball before a fielder's choice by Mike Hofius scored a run and cut the lead to 6-5 with two outs. Perez issued another walk to load the bases again, but with the game on the line he struck out Brad Bauder looking.
The win puts the Panners at 1-5 on the season, 1-1 in the Alaska Baseball League.
Perez, normally the team's center fielder, entered the game hitting .375, more than 100 points better than any other Panner. (The team had a collective batting average of .237).
Before Wednesday Perez had not fared as well on the mound, allowing two hits, three walks and four earned runs, as well as hitting a batter, in just one inning. He sported a 36.00 earned run average.
The Panners were blown out in two previous games (9-1 and 15-2), lost a pair of one-run games and fell in a 7-3 contest against the Anchorage Glacier Pilots on Tuesday in their first ABL contest.
The Goldpanners took an early lead against the Miners, scoring four runs in the top of the third. The Panners had three stolen bases in the inning, including a steal of home by Perez for the game's second run.
Marc Tugwell had an RBI single and stole second and third base and
Eric Keefner hit a two-out, two-run double to key the rally.
Ryan Strain doubled home Eric Kitchen in the fourth inning to push the Goldpanners lead to 5-1.
The last time the Panners faced the Miners, in the semifinals of the Kenai Hardball Tournament, they saw a 5-0 lead evaporate into a 9-8 loss and the Miners made a valiant attempt to repeat that script.
The Miners scored single runs in the third and fourth innings and added a pair of runs in the fifth on a two-run home run by Hofius to make the score 5-4.
The Panners scored an insurance run in the top of the seventh when
Tom Carrow doubled and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by
Todd Leathers and scored on a sacrifice fly by John Purdom.
They ended up needing the insurance in the bottom of the ninth before Perez could come in to sew up the win.
Alex Creel pitched the first 5[2/3] innings for the Panners and picked up the win, allowing four runs on seven hits. Dunwell pitched 2[1/3] innings of solid relief before running into trouble in the ninth.
