Glacier Pilots sweep Anchorage Bucs to claim Alaska Baseball League championship

The Anchorage Glacier Pilots were double trouble for the Anchorage Bucs on Tuesday night on their way to becoming champions of the Alaska Baseball League.

The Pilots ripped six doubles, including three in a row in the decisive fifth inning, to beat the Bucs 9-6 and sweep the Top of the World Series at Mulcahy Stadium.

Coupled with a 10-8 victory Monday, the win lifted the Pilots to the championship of the best-of-3 season finale.

Nick Hagedorn banged out two doubles in a 3-for-4 night for the Pilots, who wrapped up a 24-21 season by winning their final four games. The Bucs finished 18-28.

The Pilots scored single runs in three of the first four innings. In the fourth, Hagedorn hit a leadoff double and scored on a Grant Weiss double to make it 3-0.

In the next inning, Tom Tabak, Michael McNamara and Fausto Lopez ripped consecutive doubles as the Pilots racked up five runs on four hits and two errors to expand their lead to 8-0.

The Bucs ended Jimmy Galicia’s shutout with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Galicia lasted six innings and limited the Bucs to two runs despite giving up 10 hits.

With two out in the eighth, Jack Machtolf gave the Bucs hope when he cleared the bases with a three-run double, part of a four-run inning that made it 9-6.

The Pilots responded by bringing in reliever William St. Marseille, who stranded Machtolf at third base with a groundout and retired all three batters he faced in the ninth inning, two of them on strikeouts.