The 2019 Peninsula Oilers season came to an end on Saturday with a 4-0 Anchorage Bucs win at Mulcahy Stadium. The Oilers, who had pushed a best-of-three game playoff series against the Bucs to a winner-take-all game, came up empty against familiar names in the Bucs pitching staff.
Bucs 4- Oilers 0
For the Oilers who opened the ABL season in June with a loss to the Bucs, Saturday’s result was a complete contrast in Game three, falling in a 4-0 pitchers dual.
The Oilers’ Bryan Woo (Top Prospect Award winner) tossed 5.1 innings in his third start against the Bucs while Anchorage left-hander Mason Wells in his fifth start against the Oilers threw a season-high 7.1 innings.
Through a scoreless first five innings, both Wells and Woo combined to allow two hits while striking out 11 batters.
With the stalemate progressing into the sixth, the Oilers blinked first. After a Taishe Nakawake lead-off single and an Isaac Barerra groundout, Woo was pulled in favor of Connor McCord.
Chad Castillo, the first batter McCord faced, singled allowing Nakawake to advance to third. Nakawake scored on a Blake Paugh sacrifice fly to give the Bucs a 1-0 lead.
In the seventh, the Bucs took McCord deep on a Justin Cook two-run home run to increase the Anchorage lead to 3-0.
The Bucs scored another run in the eighth after a Cook double-play ground out, scoring Paugh from third.
In the ninth, the Oilers put two men on base against closer Colton Rendon (1st Team All-ABL), then Rendon struck out Victor Carlino to end the game and the Oilers season.
ABL Top of the World Series:
The Bucs advance to the championship round against the Anchorage Glacier Pilots in a best of three-game series beginning on Sunday at Mulcahy Stadium.
