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| Miners reliever James Allen closed the door on the Fire last night, striking out two in 1.1 IP. |
What a wild one at Hermon Brothers Field last night! Both the game and the weather. Despite morning sun and temperatures hovering around 70 degrees early in the day, by game time things had taken a turn for the worse. The wind was blowing in hard from left field (which could have robbed at least one homer) and a thick blanket of clouds had rolled in, blocking out the sun and casting a chill over the Mat-Su valley. But baseball fans, myself included, must have found enough wooden items to knock on, because not a drop of rain fell on the field and we got 8 1/2 innings of exciting baseball in.
But enough about the weather, what about the game? This match-up between the AIA Fire and the Mat-Su Miners was quite the contest. But before I go into the details, let me just clarify something: last night I came to the ball park (late, no less) with the #1 goal of snapping as many photos as possible. For my first round of games for the season, that will probably be my main concern, so I can get a backlog of "stock" face photos and whatnot to use for my later articles. With that as my primary goal, I didn't have time to keep score, and my thoughts for the evening are specific things about a few players and events, not a recap of the game with notes on the players who performed the best. If any readers want to share their thoughts on the night, you're always welcome to leave a comment. So, moving along...
Miners RHP James Allen stood out to me for the way he closed out the game. He came on to pitch in the middle of the eighth with runners on first and second, with the Fire threatening to tie the game up, and pretty much shut the door on them. He wasn't perfect -- he walked the first batter he faced to load the bases -- but I really appreciate the fact that he faced some high-pressure situations and seemed to relish the challenge. He ended the Fire rally in the 8th with a strikeout of Aaron Parnell, and when Cody Terry got a lead-off single in the 9th, Allen responded by striking out Will Watson and making a pick-off throw that led to Terry being tagged out in a pickle. One more fly-ball out was all it took to get James Allen his first save of the season.
