Oakland Ballers are a happy group after getting the win over the Yuba Sutter High Wheelers at Raimondi Park in Oakland on Wed Aug 6, 2025 (Oakland Ballers X photo)

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Yuba-Sutter High ‘Wheelers (2nd half:28-11,season 37-38) 012 032 000 8 13 3

Oakland Ballerss (2nd half:16-5;,season 51-16) 040 100 06x 11 10 4

Time: 3:11

Attendance: 2,288

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–You can always expect the unexpected at an Oakland Ballers ball game. This Wednesday night’s wild and wooly 11-8win over their arch rivals from Marysville, the Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers, was an especially surreal example of that paradox.

It began with your usual see-saw (or is it teeter totter) ups and downs with the visitors rising first when Evan Berkey smacked a lead off round tripper to left center off the B’s starter Zach St. Pierre.

The weight on the fulcrum quickly shifted in the bottom of the inning; the High Wheelers plopped down and the Ballers rose with four runs after the visitors’ Jonah Jacobs Jake Allgeyer, whose walk off single had won Tuesday’s come from behind thriller, grounded out to Berkey at second, followed by Cam Bufford’s double to l, weft, a walk to Lou Helmig, and Tyler Lozano, loading the bases. Davis Drewek unloaded them with a grand slam over the right field fence.

The tenor of the game underwent a qualitative change in the top of the fifth. Allgeyer’s error at the hot corner allowed Bobby Lada to reach first safely, and when Lou Helmig mishandled the ball, Lada kept on going to second. (Both teams solidified the PBL’s reputation for shaky defense.

All in all, they would commit seven errors, a wild pitch, a passed ball,and a balk. The combined pitching staff would hit four batters). Gio Brusa’s single moved Lada up another 90 feet, setting the stage for Berky’s second home run of the game.

St. Pierre then hit Mike Campagna on what seemed to be his back ankle. The High Wheeler’s catcher took umbrage at having to pay the piper for Berky’s blast and expressed his displeasure to St. Pierre. Before we knew it, the benchwarming Kirkland Banks and Cooper Hext, along with coach Billy Horton— who declares on his Linked In page, he ” I embrace the opportunity to be an example to others….”—were ejected. There was no announcement of the ejection or the reason for it. We could have strong suspicions. There must have been plenty of sound and fury on the field, but in the stands that signified nothing.

The fandom grew restless and raucous, but not , however, rowdy. Still, it had passed from having a good time while watching a ball game to having a good time at a ballgame. The crowd’s mood did not improve when Christian Almanza’s fielding error put Connor Denning on base and the Oakland first sacker’s subsequent errant backhand toss to St. Pierre allowed the aggrieved Campagne to hussle on to third.

At this point, manager Aaron Miles gave St. Pierre the gate and called on James Colyer to stop the hemorrhaging. St. Pierre had thrown 96 pitches over 4-1/3 innings, in which he had allowed six runs, five earned, on eight hits, including three dingers, a balk, and a hit batter.

Colyer closed out the fifth without suffering any damage, but he was less effective in the visitors’ half of the sixth . River Orsak drew a walk and quickly moved on to second on a passed ball, adding a new dimension to the chant, “Oh, Tyler Lozano.”‘ Singles by Brusa and Cuba Bss upped Yuba-Sutter’s lead to 8-5.

The B’s offense barely stirred against Cole Cressend in the fifth and sixth, or against Scott Ellis in the seventh, and the crowd was getting restless. It began to focus back on the game after Bufford and Helmig hit back to back singles to open the episode against Jack Martin, who had just taken over for Ellis.

Sam Drumheller, who would suffer his third defeat without a win, took over and didn’t give up an earned run. He did however, allow his two inherited runs to score, and he coughed up two more runs to batters for whom he was responsible. But those two tallies were unearned.

Lozano’s productive out on a grounder to second put the two runners in scoring position. Davis Drewek’s sacrifice fly to right plated Bufford and Randy Flores’s error allowed Helmig to take third and Drewek reach first. After Cobb drove Helmig in and advanced Drevek to third.

With the B’s now trailing by only one run, they, and their assembled supporters, were back in the game. Dillon Tattum pinch hit for Esai Santos and received an intentional walk. Esai Santos pinch ran for him. Almanza’s single tied the score by bringing Drewek home and putting Santos into scoring position with the potential tie breaker.

Danny Harris provided the crescendo, at three run wallop, and it was all over but the shouting.

Diylan Massuoka, who had replaced Colyer in the seventh and hadn’t allowing anything more threatening than a hit batter ceded mound duties to Connor Sullivan, who faced four High Wheelers and allowed only a walk, followed by a wild pitch, to earned his 13th save. Maetsuoka got the win and now is 5-1.

Before Friday night game, the B’s will host a Filipino block party with all sorts of musical and culinary treats. That will start at 5:00pm. On top of that, the first 200 fans through the gates will receive a free celebratory t-shirt. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35pm PT.