Baseball / Miners over Chinooks, 5-3 in Gm2 of Playoffs

Miners over Chinooks, 5-3 in Gm2 of Playoffs

Date:  Source: Alaska Baseball League

PALMER — As the Chugiak Chinooks prepared to send, potentially, the go-ahead run to the plate, Mat-Su Miners head coach Ben Taylor motioned to the bullpen. With one out, two on, and the Miners clinging to a two-run lead in the eighth, Miners closer Blake Tassin trotted to the mound.

Five outs later, the Miners punched their ticket to the Alaska Baseball League Top of the World Series for the fifth straight year. Tassin, a first-team all-league reliever and the ABL’s Top Prospect for the 2018 season, retired all five Chinooks he faced and helped the Miners earn a 5-3 win over the Chinooks, and sweep the best-of-3 first-round ABL playoff series.

“He’s really, really stepped up,” Taylor said. “Time and time again, we’ve asked him to take the ball in a tough

Tassin, a Southeastern Louisiana product, fanned the first hitter he faced, and needed only 11 pitches to retire five Chinooks. Ten of those pitches were strikes.

“Trust and confidence,” Taylor said. “There’s no better thing when you’re the skipper, when you look down the bullpen and you’ve got trust and confidence. We have that in every guy, not just Tassin.”

Ian Churchill, who was a perfect 7-0 during the regular season, earned the win on the mound. The lefty didn’t allow a hit until Gregory Ozuna’s double in the fifth inning. Churchill allowed only two hits, fanned eight and walked four.

Mat-Su jumped to an early advantage and led 5-0 in the third.

“That was kind of the game plan we talked about,” Taylor said. “We wanted to jump on them early. We knew they’ve got some guys who can really swing the bat that are hot. We knew if we could jump on their starter early it was going to help us late.”

And it did.

Chugiak scored a run in the fifth and put the pressure on with two more in the eighth.

“They play hard. They gave us a run all year,” Taylor said. “We knew it was going to be a tough fight all series.”

Taylor praised his counterpart, Chugiak’s skipper.

“Jon Groth is an unbelievable coach. He does a hell of a job,” Taylor said.

With the win, the Miners have Friday off before returning to Hermon Brothers Field to host the Anchorage Bucs in a best-of-3 championship set that starts Saturday at 4 p.m.

“We did what we needed to do,” Taylor said. “We wanted to sweep the series. It helps if you can sweep the series because you have the third day as an off day.”

Mat-Su is the two-time defending ABL champs.

spot, and he answers the bell.”