Bucs pitcher Isaac Johnson of Anchorage. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Goon Gallery
It must have felt like old times for Anchorage Bucs pitcher Isaac Johnson.
A local, he was nearly unbeatable at Mulcahy Stadium when he played high school and Legion for South, and he looked just as sharp Tuesday night.
Johnson pitched 6.2 scoreless innings to highlight the Bucs’ 2-0 victory over the Anchorage Glacier Pilots in the second game of the annual Fourth of July doubleheader.
Johnson was hotter than a firecracker as he retired 13 straight at one point and carried a shutout into the seventh inning, finishing one out shy of recording his first complete-game effort in the Alaska Baseball League.
Alaska Baseball League
14-8 Bucs
11-9 Miners
10-10 Glacier Pilots
9-10 Chinooks
5-12 Oilers
He struck out four and allowed four hits and one walk. Free bases had been his bugaboo in his first four appearances this summer when he issued seven walks in 4.2 innings.
Johnson got out of a bases loaded jam with a strikeout to end the first inning, which set the tone for the rest of the way.
He squared off against familiar faces in the Glacier Pilots’ lineup in Terren Sugita of Anchorage, Zach Cole of Chugiak and Noah Lower of Eagle River.
Sugita batted in the cleanup spot and finished 1-for-3. Cole hit eighth and went 0-for-2 with a walk. Lower was in the nine-hole and went 1-for-3.
Glacier Pilots’ batter Terren Sugita of Anchorage. Photo by Stephanie Burgoon/Goon Gallery
Sugita singled in the first, Lower singled in the second and Cole walked in the seventh. In between that it was Johnson putting goose eggs on the scoreboard.
The 6-foot-4, 215-pounder out of Concordia University St. Paul improved to 2-0 for the Bucs and lowered his season ERA to 3.98 in 11.1 innings.
Anchorage’s Curtis Hebert came on to play shortstop in the sixth and finished 0-for-1 at the plate to lower his batting average to .316, tops among Alaskans in the ABL.
