The Grand Junction Jackalopes and the Oakland Ballers did battle Sat May 31, 2025 at Raimondi Field in West Oakland (photo by the Oakland Ballers)

Grand Junction Jackalopes( 3-8) 100 215 201 12 14 5

Oakland Ballers (6-5) 011 010 070 10 11 5

Saturday, May 31, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The Ballers almost pulled off a comeback for the ages this pleasant evening in West Oakland scoring seven runs in the bottom of the eighth and fell two runs short losing to the Grand Junction Jackalopes 12-10.

Trailing the visiting woebegone Jackalopes 11-3 in the bottom of the eighth, the B’s staged a seven run rally, capped by Cam Bufford’s one out two run homer to right center field, to bring them with a single tally of a tie.

That blast, ironically, proved to be a rally killer. After Bufford sent the spheroid over the fence, Reese Miller relieved Cade Flaherty, stopped the home team in its tracks, and set them down in order in the ninth to earn his second save of the season.

The game was exciting but not well played; each team committed five errors. They went through a dozen pitchers; the Jacks used seven and the B’s five. Junction’s hurlers threw 177; Oakland’s, 163.

A quick glance at an abbreviated version of the visitors’ pitching numbers table might give a better sense of what happened than any narrative could. The Ballers’ numbers were similar, but there’s nothing to be gained by fatiguing you with evidence of how ineffectively the hurlers plyed their trade

Pitcher IP R ER H SO BB WP HP BLK HR Pitches

Tyler Curtis 4-1/3 3 2 6 3 0 0 2 1 0 86

Tai Atkins 2/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5

Zach DeVito 1 0 0 o 1 0 0 0 0 0 20

Aydan Alger 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 17

Mark Schommer 1/3 4 4 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 21

Cade Flaherty, et al

The game began, like so many others, with the teams jockeying for position. The Jacks jumped out to an early one run lead, the B’s came back to lead 2-1 after three. Junction responded with a pair of runs in the fourth, and the two teams traded one run fifth. The breakout occured in the top of the sixth, on RBI singles by Zeb Roos and Kendall Foster and what looked like the coup de grace, a three run four bagger by Robin Fernández that gave the Jackalopes a seemingly definitive 9-3 lead. The Ballers scored seven runs in the

But, as the Cubans say, all we know about baseball is that it’s round and comes in a square box. The B’s went quietly in their half of the sixth, and the Coloradans tacked on another two tallies, neither of them earned, in an inning marked by two Oakand errors. The outlook sure wasn’t brilliant for the Oaktown Nine that day. The score stood 11-3 with but 2-1/2 innings left to play.

But the B’s bounced back. Esai Santos singled, driving in Pat Monteith and Danny Harris. It now was 11-5. There was a tiny bit of hope left among the Baller faithful. Davis Drewek doubled, sending Tremayne Cobb, i Santos, and Dillon Tatum across the plate to narrow the gap to 11-8. That little ray of hope grew larger. Cam Buffard was up next. His round tripper made it an 11-10 game.

And then the wind went out of Oakland’s sails. Buffard was the last Baller to reach base. Zeb Roos’s double, which plated Luis Hernández with Junction’s twelth run, felt like a mere formality.

Roos led the Jackalopes with four hits, followed by Foster with three, and a trio of batters—Fernández, Matt Piotrowski, and Evan Scavotto—each with two. Scavotto didn’t enter the fray until the sixth.

This six game series will conclude Sunday afternoon, with fireworks or duds or a combination of both commencing at 1:05. It sounds like a fine way to welcome in June.