Goldpanners season collage by Alexis Friedman / For the Daily News-Miner
August 6, 2022 Jeff Olsen- Daily News-Miner
SALT LAKE CITY – You couldn’t help but get the feeling Saturday night that – even though it was only the bottom of the second inning – this Marshall Gates World Series semifinal between the Alaska Goldpanners and San Diego Waves hinged on a single at-bat.
Alaska starter Nolan Meredith had faced the minimum in the first inning with a ground out, a walk and a sharply turned double play from shortstop Marty Munoz to Caleb Millikan at second and Matthew Pinal at first.
But he gave up back-to-back doubles to San Diego’s Matt Schlesener and Jamie Berg, the latter being a fluke fly ball that dropped into no man’s land between three Goldpanners’ fielders. Two outs and a walk later, the bases were loaded with catcher Reece Anderson at the plate.
Any kind of out and the Goldpanners would have dodged a huge bullet. Any kind of hit and they’d be in a two-run hole against Waves’ starter Cole Colleran, who had retired six of the first eight batters he’d faced, the exceptions being Sean Rimmer who reached on an error and Pinal, who had singled.
The 0-1 pitch that Anderson laced into right field scored just a pair of runs. But they were as ominous as the dark clouds hanging over Salt Lake Community College’s Cate Field, where the game had been moved due to light rains that continued for roughly a half-hour after the 6:30 p.m. first pitch.
By the bottom of the sixth inning, when the 10th San Diego Waves runner crossed home plate, Saturday’s game had mercifully come to an end. Everyone seemed aware that the 10-0 score ended it except for the umpires, who briefly debated whether the rule actually took effect after seven innings before realizing everyone else on the field was ready to move on with their lives.
For the Waves, that meant preparing for Sunday morning’s championship game against the winner Saturday’s later game between the Utah Marshalls and Utah College League All-Stars.
For the Goldpanners, it meant hugs along the third-base line, final words from field manager Mark Lindsay, and saying goodbye to coaches and teammates after an otherwise successful 34-14-1 season.
“It’s not the way we wanted to go out,” Lindsay said. “We went back to giving up free bases with walks. But yeah, there’s no doubt that overall it was a good year with a great group.”
The highlight of that year, no doubt, was the Midnight Sun Game victory in Fairbanks over these same San Diego Waves. Brock Rudy’s 4-for-6 performance and game-winning RBI in the 10th inning will forever live in Goldpanners’ lore as one of the most exciting in the game’s 116-year history.
Ironically it was Rudy who had the last legitimate scoring opportunity in Saturday’s game. Mired in a 1-for-12 slump in Utah after hitting .408 during the summer, he even switched jerseys from his No. 29 to the No. 8 of Dominic Hughes Saturday night. Hughes had departed after the first game of the series due to a family commitment.
“As Hughes goes our offense goes,” Lindsay had said earlier in the week.
But with one out and Tate Shimao in scoring position after walking and stealing second, Rudy hit a 3-2 pitch hard but directly to the second baseman, who threw to first for the second out of the inning. It was just that kind of week for Rudy.
Sean Rimmer then struck out swinging to end the inning, stranding Shimao at third.
From there, the Waves kept chipping away at Meredith. A leadoff single in the third seemed to be negated by consecutive fly balls to center field. But a two-out, two-strike double and a two-strike grounder that got away from Shimao put two more Waves runs on the board.
Meredith wasn’t going to go down without a fight, though. After a walk and a fielder’s choice in the fourth he attempted to field a come-backer that was hit so hard it knocked his glove off. He instantly regrouped and threw bare-handed to Pinal for the second out of the inning, and then sent the next batter fishing on a 1-2 curveball that ended up so far out of the zone he had to lunge at it.
His final line was four runs (three earned) on five hits with three walks and two strikeouts.
In relief, Kaden Hogan gave up four runs in two-thirds of an inning without a single hit. The frame started with a walk, but was followed by a fielder’s choice and a fly ball to center. The side-arm throwing right-hander then allowed four consecutive free passes – two hit batters and two walks – which made the score 6-0. Replacing Hogan, newcomer Mitchell Mussler gave up a two-RBI single before getting a foul out to Pinal.
Colleran, meanwhile, had retired 12 out of 13 batters by the time the bottom of the sixth started.
After a groundout to start the inning, Mussler gave up four consecutive hits, leading to the 10-0 mercy rule conclusion for the Waves. In addition to four wins in Fairbanks, the San Diego squad ended the year 5-2 against Alaska.
Contact sports editor Jeff Olsen at 907-459-7530 or jolsen@newsminer.com.
