It was kind of a bad night for Ben Mount. He gave up three runs in the first two innings, and he's lucky to have escaped without more than that. He seemed like he was hit-or-miss on the night; it sounded like his breaking stuff was sharp but had trouble with his location. In any event, he racked up almost 60 pitches in the first two innings and the Pilots lifted him for local product Jesse McCartney.
After that it was solid pitching. And where the heck did McCartney come from? He's a local guy from the Anchorage adult league, listed as a fielder, but after Mount got smacked around he came in to pitch and totally tamed the Miners' bats. I don't know if he's for real or not, but A+ performance. On the other side, how about Miners left-hander Blake Dieterich out of the University of Georgia? To me, it didn't sound like he was treating it as a preseason warm-up; he was in it to win it. He pitched into the fifth when Bradley left-hander Joe Birch and then Florida State rightie Gage Smith came in to successfully close it out. Both looked very good.
