Reflections/Photo Post: Fire @ Miners, 7-14-2010

Tyler Ruch's walk-off sac fly put the Miners over
the Fire in the bottom of the 9th.

EDIT: I made some corrections to this. I got my middle infielders dyslexified and referred to Matt Wessinger as Bret Schwartz. My bad. I am now giving Wessinger the credit where credit is due, and Schwartz is still cool. Thanks to the reader who made the catch; and let this be a lesson to those who would blog at 1 a.m.

It was a month ago to the day that I first saw the AIA Fire take on the Mat-Su Miners for my first game of the ABL season. Well, as chance would have it -- and I totally did not plan it to be this way -- I found myself, again, at a Fire at Miners game on the 14th of the month, which was last night. I took some pictures and made a few notes, but  most of all I was trying to get some video footage for the series of scouting videos I plan to post up on YouTube over the off-season. But for now, I'll share some of my thoughts and photos from the game with you.

One guy I should have had the camera on was Matt Wessinger (Miners). He looked phenomenal at second base tonight. He made some very good plays with the glove, including a great charge and off-balance flip to first to beat Will Watson by the thinnest hair and save an infield single against his team. Very good soft-handed defense on his part.

I have to tip my hat to Fire pitcher Harrison Helms, if for nothing else, creativity. With Miners on first base, Helms was having a fun time making them get their uniforms dirty diving back under the tags as he tried to keep them close. His best pickoff move of the night, though, was probably the one where he hid the ball in his hat as he pretended to wipe the sweat from his brow before making the throw to the bag. I suppose I could have just missed it all these years but I have never seen that before.

I just have a couple more scouting notes before we move on...Pablo Bermudez (Miners) showed his power once again; he didn't hit it out of the park but he drilled one to straight-away center, right over the fielder's head. Aaron Parnell also showed good power for the Fire as he drove the ball to the opposite field right of the right field wall. Some good hustle baserunning by Andy Mee and Kevin Whitehead also caught my eye for the Miners.

Unfortunately, there's an injury note for this game. Bermudez came out of the game after apparently hurting himself while running to third base. The center fielder came up limping and had to be helped off the field. He had also removed the large pad he wore over his shin while batting. I'm not sure if he re-aggravated a previous injury or just turned/twisted his ankle, or what. He was back in the dugout later in sweats but joined the team on the field for post-game celebrations and seemed to be fine, so I wouldn't be too worried about him until game time tomorrow.

The game ended in either a spectacular or frustrating way, depending on which team you were going for. The Miners took it on a Tyler Ruch walk-off sac fly; there was a play at the plate but Fire catcher Marc Schoch couldn't fish the throw out of the dirt and when he went to make the tag, the ball was still on the ground in front of the plate. That was a real heart-breaker for the Fire squad that led the Miners the whole game, and what's worse, the photos I took show that Schoch would have nailed the tag on Miners runner Quinn Pippin had the ball actually been in his glove. That being said, I don't think there's any grounds for hating on Schoch; it looked to me like a tough spot to play the ball from and the play was so close as it was that if he'd taken any more time to make a clean pick-up it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Good sac fly by Ruch, good heads-up baserunning by Pippin, and no shame for the catcher on that one.

In Anchorage the Goldpanners dropped both games of their doubleheader to the Bucs, who are playing the spoiler -- and still have a very, very, very long shot of taking the league -- which leaves the Miners and the Goldpanners tied for first place with the Miners having two games in hand. The Oilers beat the Glacier Pilots tonight. This brings the Oilers closer to first, and all but eliminates the Glacier Pilots -- who are now 14 games back with 14 left to play -- from contention for the league title. With tonight's loss, the Fire remain 13.5 back with 19 left to play.

I did take the camera tonight and actually got some photos that I think are pretty cool. Below I'm posting some of those. But please don't forget that you can view the entire album of my good photos from the game on Picasa. I published 49 photos from the game, so the ones below are just the tip of the iceberg. As always, folks are welcome to use these photos as they wish, but if you're republishing them I request that you credit 49thStateHardball.com. Thanks!

B