The Peninsula Oilers built but couldn’t hold a late-inning, playoff opening lead.
After the Oilers took a 6-0 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning on Thursday at Mulcahy Stadium, the Anchorage Bucs stormed back with a 7-0 run to steal the opening game in the Top of the World Series against the Oilers with a 7-6 win.
Bucs 7- Oilers 6
Starting pitching dominated through the first five innings. The Oilers’ Jake Adams and the Bucs’ Evan Taylor allowed a combined six hits while striking out 16 batters.
In the sixth, the Oilers pounced for six runs against Taylor and reliever Michael Frias. An RBI single by Adam Dapkewicz, his first hit of the summer, opened the Oilers scoring. He was followed by an RBI base on balls by Travis Bohall and an RBI single by Bobby Goodloe. Two additional runs were plated on a throwing error by first baseman Ryan Sullivan, then the Oilers capped off the scoring on a Connor McCord RBI double that scored Goodloe.
In the bottom of the inning, the Bucs led off the inning with a Sullivan home run against Adams. Adams proceeded to walk the next three batters to load the bases. The Bucs scored two runs with reliever Giancarlo Servin on the mound.
Anchorage scored four runs in the seventh against Oilers closer Calvin Farris to take a 7-6 lead.
Farris lasted 0.2 innings, his shortest outing of the summer.
The Bucs held the the Oilers scoreless through the final two innings.
Oilers in must-win on Friday:
A loss for the Oilers on Friday ends their season in a best of three-game series. Game two against the Bucs begins at 7 p.m. on Friday at Mulcahy Stadium.
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