newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — The Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks got a brilliant pitching performance from Andrew Clauson in posting a 6-1 win over the Anchorage Glacier Pilots in Alaska Baseball League action Thursday night at Mulcahy Stadium in Anchorage.

The Panners scored all six of their runs in the first inning on just two hits en route to beating the league-leading Glacier Pilots.

The Panners sent 11 batters to the plate in the first inning, combining five walks, two hits, an error and two wild pitches into six runs.

The Panners loaded the bases when Raoul Torrez opened the game with a walk, took second on a single by Nick Ciolli and then to third on a walk to Jeremy Gillan.

Newcomer Brian Beres also drew a walk to score Torrez with the first run of the game. Casey Stevenson then drove in what proved to be the winning run when he grounded out and Ciolli scored.

Ryan Heroy then reached first on an error, with Gillan scoring on the play. Ryan Scama followed with a run-scoring single.

The final two runs scored on wild pitches.

Clauson scattered seven hits, walked four and recorded nine strikeouts in his complete-game performance.

The Glacier Pilots still rest atop the ABL standings with a 16-8 record. The Peninsula Oilers (12-10) are the only other team in the league with a better than .500 record. The Mat-Su Miners (11-11) are in the third spot, followed by the Panners (11-12), Anchorage Bucs (12-14) and Athletes in Action Fire (8-14).

All six teams will be in Anchorage this weekend for the ABL Showcase at Mulcahy Stadium.

The Panners play the Bucs at 7 tonight, the Miners at 4 p.m. Saturday and the Pilots at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Fire fall

Athletes in Action suffered a 3-2 loss to the Peninsula Oilers on Thursday night in Kenai. Brandon Berl earned the win for the Oilers while Eric Hillenbrand suffered the loss for the Fire. P.J. Seqeiera doubled in the winning run in the seventh inning to knock Hillenbrand out of the game.