Oilers drop their fourth and fifth games on the road in a doubleheader against the Chugiak Eagle River Chinooks.
Game 1:
The Oilers were the “home team” in game one of the doubleheader due to a rainout in Kenai this past week. The Chinooks struck first in the top of the first inning, plating an early run.
The O’s responded however with a returning punch, that drove in four runs in the bottom of the frame to take a 4-1 lead. A three hit inning and two errors on Chinooks third baseman Jordan Jaffe put the Oilers in a good spot heading into the second.
The Chinooks, however, wasted no time snatching the lead right back in the second. Chugiak scored five runs on three hits (all doubles) and three walks given up by Oilers starting pitcher Aaron Morris (Utah Tech).
The O’s would then plate a single run in the second and two runs in the third to retake the lead 7-6 headed into the fourth. Nathan Hoffman started hot and worked quickly in innings three, four, and five. But in the sixth inning, the Oilers ran into trouble.
The Chinooks retook the lead, scoring two in the sixth, and capped it off with four more insurance runs in the seventh to take the first game by a final score of 12-7.
Game 2:
The Oilers struck early again in the second game to take an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first. However, sloppy defense and uncharacteristic mistakes allowed Chugiak to score and respond with two runs for themselves.
Walks and errors plagued the Oilers in the early goings of game two, which proved to be a large part of why the Peninsula squad also lost game two.
After the first, both teams went quietly in innings two, three, and four. The Oilers once again failed to drive in multiple runners in scoring position and headed into the fifth tied at 2-2. But once again, late-game heroics and timely hitting lifted the Chinooks to victory.
A run in the fifth and a run in the sixth put the pressure on the O’s to score two runs in the seventh to keep the game alive. Gavin Alveti would go 6.2 innings, throwing over 100 pitches in his first start of the summer. After Alveti gave up a two-out single to Aidan Sullivan (Swarthmore) and a walk to Petey Soto, the Chinooks went to their third baseman Louis Zoulika to close the game. Cole Dawson (Arkansas Tech) retired the next at-bat as he grounded out sharply to Zoulika on the mound.
With two losses on the day, the Oilers fell to 16-16 in the year and are now four games out of first place in the BL standings.
The Oilers look to change the narrative Monday, July 22nd, in a must-win game against the number one overall, Anchorage Bucs.
Be sure to tune into tomorrow’s game with a first pitch at 6 pm and a pre-game start time of 5:45 p.m. All games are streamed on radiokenai.com
