The Peninsula Oilers and the Anchorage Glacier Pilots opened up their six-game series at Coral Seymour Memorial Park splitting a doubleheader on Thursday.
The Oilers behind timely hitting powered their way to a 7-4 win in game one, the Pilots took advantage of Oilers errors in game two, snatching the tail end of the twin bill 5-0.
The Oilers remain at .500 with the split with a record of 20-20, the Pilots at 16-22, remain three games back of the third-place Oilers in the Alaska Baseball League standings .
Game One: Oilers 7- Pilots 4
The Pilots scored the first three runs of the game against Oilers starter Noah Owen, with runs in the second, third and fourth innings.
The Oilers responded in the bottom of the fourth with three runs scored on a two-run home run by Ryan Koch and a Ryan Novis RBI triple tying the score at 3-3.
The Oilers exploded for four additional runs in the fifth when Koch hit a grand slam against Pilots starter Zachariah Jarrard. Koch finished the game with a season high six RBI.
Noah Owen’s night concluded after 3.2 innings and reliever Ryan Silva recorded his third win of the season, tossing 3.1 innings in relief of Owen.
The Pilots added their fourth run in the seventh.
Game Two: Pilots 5- Oilers 0
Pitching dominated the second game of the doubleheader. Oilers starter Mike Lopez and Pilots starter Joe Fitka held both lineups scoreless through five innings.
The Pilots broke the stalemate in the top of the sixth on an unearned run scored against Lopez.
Lopez suffered his first loss of the season, allowing one, unearned run through six innings pitched.
The Pilots erupted for four unearned runs in the seventh inning against Oilers reliever Tre Brown. A two-out fielding error led to back-to-back two-out, two-run RBI singles.
Top of The World Series Update
On Thursday, the Anchorage Bucs defeated the Mat-Su Miners 12-0 at Mulcahy Stadium. The Bucs win and the Oilers loss secures one of the top two playoff seeds for the Bucs leading into the upcoming 2018 ABL Top of The World Series.
The Miners, the current league leader in the ABL standings and the Bucs both own the season tie-breaker against the Oilers with the season advantage in head-to-head matches.
The highest seed that the Oilers can clinch is the #3 seed.
The top two seeds entering the tournament will host a best of three game playoff series beginning on Aug. 1st. The best of three game championship series will be held between the two teams who advance from the opening round, with the higher seeded team hosting beginning Aug. 3rd through sixth.
Oilers doubleheader on Friday
The Oilers and Pilots will play the third and fourth games of their six-game series on Friday beginning at 4 p.m.
The doubleheader is sponsored by the Oilers Booster Club, each of the remaining four games of the series are all free games.
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