Oakland Ballers catcher Tyler Lazano (left) and pitcher Luke Short (right) exchange pleasantries at Raimondi Field as they took on the Grand Junction Jackalopes on Wed May 28, 2025 (Oakland Ballers photo)

Grand Junction Jackalopes (2-6) 200 0200 100 5 8 0]

Oakland Ballers (4-4) 000 000 000 0 3 3

Time: 2:21

Attendance: 1,358

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–What a difference a week makes! After his first start of 2025, the Jackalope’s 22 year old righthander Zach Zaborowski’s numbers were 0-1, 4.76 with a WHIP of 1.41. After he got through frustrating the Ballers in Wednesday night’s contest at Ernie Raimondi Park in a 5-0 shutout, those figures stood at 1-1, 2.13 and 0.87.

Ah, well, Wednesday’s child is full of woe, and the 23 year old from Westfield, IN gave his hosts seven innings of one hit woe before yielding the mound to Aydan Alger, allowed them two hits in the remaining two frames but preserved the shutout, the first the Oakanders have suffered so far this season.

The Jackalopes jumped to an early lead and never looked back. Luke Short, Oakland’s southpaw starter, walked Jeb Roos, the first batter he faced. Center fielder Alex Pimentel followed him in the batting order and cleared the basepaths as both trotted around the diamond on Pimentel’s fence clearing blast to right.

Short held the Jackalopes in check for a while but weakened in the top of the fifth. With the bases loaded and two away, manager Aaron Miles decided that Short had hung around long enough; the bases were loaded with two down.

The skipper called on portsider Brody Eglite to put out the fire. It didn’t work out as he had planned. Evan Scavoto singled to right and continued on to second on Lou Helmig’s error. Kendall Foster, one of the two men on board advanced to third, and the other two, crossed the plate, doubling Grand Junction’s lead to 4-0. One of those runs was unearned, coming on an error by B’s backstop, Tyler Lozano. Both of the runs were charged to Short.

It was all over but the shouting. One of the casualties of defeat, which dropped the Baller’s back down to the .500 mark, Tremayne Cobb’s seven game hitting streak. For all the disappointment the Baller backers suffered, it was the best pitched game played in Raimondi Park in recent memory.

The six game series will continue Thursday, and Friday at 6:35, followed by a 4:35 start on Saturday and the final encounter on Sunday at 1:05.