The next homestand on Aug 5th for the Oakland Ballers will be against the Yuba City High Wheelers and it’ll be Bruce Lee night a tribute to the former Green Hornet TV star first pitch 6:30pm at Raimondi Park in West Oakland (Oakland Ballers image)

Colorado Sky Sox (2nd half:6-6,2025:15-44) 000 021 101 5 8 1

Oakland Ballers (2nd half:7-5,2025:45-15) 020 002 100 5 7 1 (Oakland wins in KO inning, 3-2)

Sunday, July 27, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–This sunny Sunday afternoon’s finale of the six game (aren’t they all?) series between the Colorado Springs Sky Sox and your Oakland Ballers felt like a return to normality. Sure, the B’s had to resort to a knock out inning before they could defeat the Sockin’ Sox , 6-5, but at least that side show, which has as much validity as a measure of a team’s performance as flipping trading cards, which, appropriately enough, were today’s giveaway, was an improvement over what we’d experienced earlier in the week.

Oakland’s Cam Bufford out homered Colorado Springs’ Christian Hall, 3-2. The game counts in the standings, but the official box score shows a 5-5 tie. So, how is this post game crap shoot different from Tuesday’s dreadful duel?

Time, for one thing. We had to wait for about an hour after the two teams had made 27 outs before we knew who won. Today’s wait took about ten minutes. And then there’s the matter of the happy ending, but that’s beside the point.

Today we were spared the bathos of sustained failure. Austin Coleman started for the Sky Sox on Tuesday.when he hung around for 5-1/3 innings, throwing 112 pitches, and all he had to show for it was 12 runs, all earned, on ten hits, half of which cleared the fence.

He started again today. His performance wasn’t stellar, but it was within the limits of an ordinary bad outing, especially in the Pioneer Baseball League, which makes the Pacific Coast League look like a pitchers’ paradise. Coleman went six innings today, threw 88 pitches, allowed four runs, again all earned, on seven hits, only one of which went yard,

And there was some sparkling defensive play on both sides today. The one that immediately comes to mind,—maybe because it’s the most recent and kept the B’s in the game— occurred in the top of the ninth. Matt Fabian had led off with a walk.

A pinch hitting Evan Sleight forced him out at second and advanced to third on Brett Robert’s double to left and scored the tying run when Quintt Landis doubled to left. Robert raced toward home and looked like a sure bet to score the run that would have put the Sox ahead. But he was thrown out by a clockwork 7-6-2 relay, Drewek to Cobb to Lozano. I don’t care what the PBL’s nominal level is, that play was major league.

The victory gave the Ballers their seventh consecutive series win. Bufford, whose post game batting practice exhibition put the game in the win column for them, and Jake Allgeyer were the only two Oakland batters to have multi hit games. Helmig, Bufford, and Allgeyer hit doubles, and Nick Leehey was the only Baller to go yard.

Oakland used five pitchers. Starter Gabe Tanner was mediocre, but the Pioneer League is no place to look for sustained pitching excellence. He went six innings and yielded three runs, earned, on five hits, one long.

He struck out four Sky Sox, walked five, and committed a balk. Dylan Delvecchio and Conner Richardson were effective in relief, neither allowing a base runner in his one inning of relief. James Collyer and Connor Sullivan weren’t.

The former faced two foes, one of whom walked, and the other, Robert, homered. Sullivan gave up the game tying run in the visitors’ ninth and would have yielded at least one more if it weren’t for sparkling work of the Drewek, Cobb, and Lozano trio.

The Ballers will be out of town for the next week, playing the Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers in Marysville. They’ll return home on Tuesday, August 5, to reciprocate the High Wheelers’s hospitality for another six games. The Tuesday game, with the usual 6:35 first pitch, will be Bruce Lee night.

Colorado Springs Sky Sox 5 (6-6)

Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB

Brett Robert cf 5 2 3 3 0 0 2 0 0

Quintt Landis lf 4 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0

Kamau Neighbors ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0

Christian Hall 1b 4 0 1 0 1 0 7 2 1

Zane Denton 3b 3 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 1

T.J. McKenzie rf 3 1 0 0 1 1 3 0 2

Kai Moody 2b 4 0 2 1 0 1 1 2 0

Omar Veloz c 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 1

Matt Fabian dh 1 1 1 0 3 0 0 0 0

Edwin Martinez Pagani ss 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 1 2

Evan Sleight lf 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Austyn Coleman p 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 0

Michael Byrne p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Adam Wibert p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0

Ethan Ross p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 31 5 8 5 7 5 27 13 7

Oakland Ballers 5 (8-4)

Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB

Tremayne Cobb Jr. ss 4 0 1 0 1 0 4 4 3

Davis Drewek lf 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 3

Nick Leehey 2b 4 1 1 1 1 0 2 2 0

Christian Almanza 1b 2 1 0 0 2 0 10 2 0

Esai Santos pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Lou Helmig rf 5 1 1 1 0 0 2 0 0

Cam Bufford dh 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 1

Jake Allgeyer 3b 4 0 2 2 0 1 0 5 0

Tyler Lozano c 4 0 0 1 0 0 6 1 0

Darryl Buggs cf 2 0 0 0 2 1 3 0 1

Gabe Tanner p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

James Colyer p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Dylan Delvecchio p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Conner Richardson p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Connor Sullivan p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 32 5 7 5 7 2 27 15 8

Colorado Springs Sky: E – Zane Denton. 2B – Quintt Landis; Kai Moody. HR – Brett Robert 2. RBI – Brett Robert 3; Quintt Landis; Kai Moody. Oakland Ballers: E – Christian Almanza. 2B – Lou Helmig; Cam Bufford; Jake Allgeyer. HR – Nick Leehey.RBI – Nick Leehey; Lou Helmig; Jake Allgeyer 2; Tyler Lozano. SB – Davis Drewek; Darryl Buggs. CS – Cam Bufford. (Source: oaklandballersbaseball.com) Umpires – HP: Bill Shortridge , 1B: Tony Prater , 3B: Jim Richins