Dieterich, Miners get revenge in 13-inning no-hitter

Miners LHP Blake Dieterich held the Oilers
hitless through nine innings.

The Mat-Su Miners, fresh off a no-hitter loss to Eddie Orozco and the Oilers, showed last night that they weren't quite ready to give up first place in the ABL. What did they do? Put up a no-hitter of their own in a game that proved to be about as perfect a definition of the phrase "pitching duel" as any I've ever heard of.

Blake Dieterich got the start on the mound for the Miners and threw nine stellar innings of baseball, giving up no runs on no hits and walking just two. Dieterich also struck out three over the nine complete frames. At the end of regulation play, however, the scoreboard was still reading all goose-eggs. This game would go into extra innings and Dieterich would not get the official complete game.

The pitchers for the opposing Oilers were throwing beautiful baseball as well. Kellen Moen went five strong innings, surrendering three hits and two walks while striking out five. Taylor Garrison carried the shutout through the eighth with three innings, two hits, no walks, and sitting down a pair. Jorge Marban came in to close out the ninth with a perfect frame, and went on to total 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, and 3K. In extra frames, Adam Heredia threw a hit-less 1/3 inning, walking one as well.

It was big man Kolby Moore of the Oilers who stumbled in the top of the 13th to break the logjam, though he had plenty of help from the Oilers defense in giving the game away. Miner Brett Schwartz doubled and scored the go-ahead run on an error; Matt Ozanne and Nick DeBiasse would cross the plate on some manufactured insurance runs thanks to another error and an RBI by Pablo Bermudez.

Meanwhile, the Miners kept the no-hitter alive. James Allen threw two hitless frames (no strikeouts) while two-way man Andy Mee came on to pitch 1.2, striking out a pair and sealing the victory for the Miners. Both surrendered two walks.

The Oilers had picked up the win in the early game of this doubleheader matchup, and with the Miners victory in the nightcap, the two teams are left deadlocked for first place in the league. With the two first-place teams beating each other up over the hard-fought series, the surging Goldpanners find themselves just a game and a half back after routing the Glacier Pilots 11-0 last night. The Miners will open a home/away series with the Bucs tonight (I'll be at the Miners home portion of that tomorrow), while the Oilers will head up to Fairbanks to open their road trip with a series against the Fire. The Goldpanners and Glacier Pilots are closing out their Fairbanks series tonight before the Pilots head back to Anchorage and the Panners take a few games off.