The Mat-Su Miners are rolling right now, and it has a lot to do with the clutch factor.

The road trip began on Thursday where the Miners where blanked against the Chugiak Eagle-River Chinooks 2-0. A bright spot for the Miners was relief pitching as RHP Evan Wolf (Kent State) and RHP Aaron Winkler (Rutgers) combined for five shutout innings, giving up just three total hits.

The loss Thursday set the club back to a 5-5 record, and through four innings on Friday in Anchorage against the Glacier Pilots, it looked like the Miners would continue their offensive slump. But a Nick Cirelli (St Johns) RBI groundout ended a 28+ inning scoreless streak for the Miner offense. Then in the seventh down 2-1, after a leadoff Casey Rother (Lehigh) double, and advance to third base on a groundout catcher Tyler Rando (Gonzaga) delivered an opposite field base-hit to score Rother and tie up the game. The Miners managed to load the bases, and Gerard Sweeney (Lehigh) broke the tie with a HBP with the bases loaded to force in a run. New Miner addition J.D Urso (Tampa) knocked in a run on a SAC fly, and then the Miners scored an additional run on a balk to take a 5-2 lead that they never relinquished, scoring two additional eighth inning runs in a 7-4 victory.

The final leg on the road trip was a five-game set (SAT-SUN-MON-TUE-WED) in Kenai against the Peninsula Oilers, but mother nature had other plans, as both Saturday and Sunday's games were wiped out due to rain. That set up two seven-inning doubleheaders on Monday and Tuesday with a regulation game on Wednesday.

The doubleheader after two rain-filled days in Kenai couldn't hold down the Miners. They were able to get runs in the second inning and third inning from Cirelli and Urso, and then an additional seventh inning tack-on run on an RBI single from Rother to score David Bermudez (Rider) to cruise to a 3-1 victory. Christian Seelhorst (Slippery Rock) gave the Miners four innings of one-run baseball, striking out five while Winkler threw two scoreless and Evan Floyd (West Florida) nailed down the save with a clean seventh.

Game two was highlighted by Will Johnston's (Texas A&M) gem on the mound. The Aggie left-hander struck out 11 Oilers while giving up just three hits and one walk in seven shutout innings for the complete game. The offense was led by Bermudez, who knocked in an RBI with a single in the fifth and then hit his first homerun of the year, a solo shot in the seventh and the Miners swept the doubleheader by taking game two 3-0.

On Tuesday for game one of the doubleheader, the Miners kept the Oilers off the scoreboard with a 1-0 lead going into the fourth, but Peninsula scored a run in the fourth, and then four in the fifth to take a commanding 5-1 lead, but the Miners wouldn't be put away easy. With runners on the corners and one out, Aaron Walters (Angelo State) came through with an RBI single, followed by a Rando RBI double, before two batters later Mike Ferrara (West Chester) hit an RBI single to make the game 5-4, but Rando was cut down at the plate to keep the score where it was. Wolf was able to get a scoreless bottom of the sixth to keep the Oilers lead at just one. The Miners were able to get a couple of singles sandwiched between an out to put runners on first and second with one out and Rother walked to load the bases before Walters hit a slow roller up the first base line that was unable to be fielded in time, and everyone was safe and the Miners tied the game at five. Tyler Rando then was able to hit another slow roller over to first, and that's where the only play would be as Rando's RBI groundout gave Mat-Su the lead before Alex Magers (Texas A&M) tight-roped out of damage in the seventh with a game-ending strikeout.

Game two wasn't as eventful, atleast for Mat-Su as they were no-hit in seven innings by the Oilers Luke Yacinich (Cornell) in a 5-0 loss where the Miners couldn't get anything going. The silver-lining was the Miners took one of two on Tuesday which gave them the series victory.

With more rain in the forecast Wednesday, it was up in the air whether the series finale would be played or not. Thankfully for the Miners, it did. In the third, after a Jordan Williams (Angelo State) RBI double, Bermudez was able to knock him in with a screaming single to left field to open the scoring, and then Bermudez came around to score later that inning on a wild pitch. It was a steady rain all day in Kenai, and by the third and fourth innings, there was extra dry dirt being dumped onto the mound and in the box. Starting pitcher Lance Santerre (Delta C.C) faced some damage, but was able to navigate around it big time as he threw four scoreless innings for the Miners, striking out five. The Oilers got runners on the corners with one out, and cut into the lead a bit with a sacrifice fly, but Magers was called into the game and ended the inning on a strikeout - and that would be all she wrote. The game was finally put into a delay after rain had continued to soak the field and after a 45 minute rain delay, the game was called giving the Miners a 2-1 win.

The road trip represented a huge boost to team morale, and as of Friday night they sit in a tie with the Chugiak Eagle-River Chinooks (Chinooks hold the tiebreaker). The Miners are back in action tomorrow, Saturday June 26th against the Anchorage Glacier Pilots. First pitch is set for 7:05pm. We encourage all of you to come out and support the Miners for a good night of baseball at Herman Brothers field, and we hope to see all of you there!