The Peninsula Oilers improved to 2-0 with a 6-3, nonleague victory over the San Francisco Seals on Monday at Coral Seymour Memorial Park in Kenai.
Peninsula, which hosts the Seals (4-6 overall) again at 7 p.m. tonight in the third game of a four-game set, got big performances out of the top two spots in its order.
Hitting leadoff, Carter Yagi was 3 for 5 with three runs scored. No. 2 hitter AJ Hernandez was 3 for 5 with a run and three RBIs. The two had six of the Oilers’ 11 hits.
“I’m seeing the ball pretty well, but I couldn’t do it without AJ,” Yagi said in a postgame interview on 1140 AM.
Seals starter Jim Ploeger had a big breaking ball, but Hernandez was able to handle it. He said in a postgame interview on the radio that Ploeger hung a couple of breaking balls to him.
“I just stuck with my approach and I had a couple of hits with two strikes,” Hernandez said. “Just sticking with my approach and hitting line drives all over the field — it worked out pretty good today.”
The Oilers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Yagi started the inning with a single, stole second base and then scored on a double by Hernandez.
Peninsula jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning.
With one out, Yagi reached third on a triple, then scored on a single by Hernandez.
For six innings, those two runs looked like more than enough as for the second straight day, the Seals had trouble hitting a freshman from Appalachian State.
Sunday, Sean Mason shut the Seals out on two hits for five innings. Monday, Dallas DeVrieze picked up where Mason left off.
He pitched six shutout innings and gave up just two hits while striking out seven, capping his performance by striking out the last five. Despite all those strikeouts, he threw just 55 pitches.
DeVrieze said the key for him was getting ahead in the count with a first-pitch fastball.
“Once you get ahead, you can do more things with the batters, get some ground balls, and the guys behind me were picking it up,” he said on the radio. “It worked out well today.”
But the Seals got after reliever Jimmy Nesselt in the seventh inning. Nesselt actually ended up the winner because the Seals were able to come back and tie the game against him, scrubbing DeVrieze as the pitcher of record.
Tucker Starkey was hit by a pitch and Ian Horne doubled. Nick Egli grounded out to score Starkey, while Kirby Campbell doubled to score Egli and tie the game at 2.
But the Oilers rallied in the bottom of the seventh.
Andrew Wright started the inning with a double, then a single by Yagi put runners at the corners.
Hernandez then singled to score Wright and put Yagi on third.
Jeff Paschke then continued the hit parade with a single to score Yagi, and Ethan McGill singled to score Hernandez. Paschke then put the Oilers up 6-2 when he scored on a sacrifice fly by Sandy Sandlin.
San Francisco was able to cut into the lead in the eighth against reliever Tyler Gibson, who was credited with the save. Josh Belch led off with a single, then Austin Van Blasingame reached on a fielder’s choice. Eli Alcantar then had a single, and an error in the outfield allowed Van Blasingame to score.
Monday
Oilers 6, Seals 3
Seals AB R H BI Oilers AB R H BI
Alctr ss 4 0 1 0 Yagi ss 5 3 3 0
Strky 2b 3 1 1 0 Hrndz 2b 5 1 3 3
Hrne dh 4 1 1 0 Pske 3b 3 1 1 1
Egli 1b 4 0 0 1 McGl 1b 4 0 1 1
Cpbl 3b 4 0 1 1 Sndln cf 3 0 0 1
Pvlsky lf 3 0 0 0 Mnz c 3 0 0 0
Mrqz ph 1 0 0 0 Rose rf 3 0 1 0
Tmbsi rf 3 0 1 0 Mason dh 2 0 1 0
Blch c 3 0 1 0 Rchy dh 2 0 0 0
VnBgm cf 3 1 0 0 Shdn lf 2 0 0 0
—- — — — — Wrght lf 2 1 1 0
Totals 32 3 6 2 Totals 34 6 11 6
San Francisco 000 000 210 —3
Peninsula 100 010 40X —6
2B — Horne, Campbell, Hernandez, Wright. 3B — Yagi. SF — Sandlin. SB — Yagi, Richey. LOB — Seals 3, Oilers 8. DP — Seals 1, Oilers 1.
IP H R ER BB SO
Seals
Ploeger 6 6 2 2 2 5
Pavlovsky, L 1 5 4 4 0 1
Hodgkiss 1 0 0 0 0 2
Oilers
DeVrieze 6 2 0 0 0 7
Nesselt, W 1 3 2 2 0 2
Gibson, S 2 1 1 1 0 2
PB — Belch. HBP — by Ploeger (Rose); by Nesselt (Starkey). T — 2:10.
