Oakland Ballers Brenden O’Sullivan (8) makes contact against Long Beach Coast pitching in Pioneer League action at Raimondi Field in Oakland on Sun Aug 30, 2026 (Oakland Ballers photo)

Monday, August 31

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–In the past seven days, your Oakland Ballers closed up their home season by doing exactly what you’d expect of them: the unexpected.   

On Tuesday, August 25, with the B’s trailing the rising Missoula PaddleHeads 7-4, in the bottom of the eighth, it looked like the visitors’ Brock Lambert, who had entered the game in relief of Jaren Jackson, the PaddleHeads’ starter and eventual winner, plunked Noah Blythe. Home plate umpire Ricardo Rodríguez didn’t see it that way, and Blythe ended up flying out to the warning track in right. The next B at the plate, Mitchell Sanford, homered to left before the Ballers’ small ball combined with some sloppy Missoula fielding combined to bring Brendan O’Sullivan home with another, unearned, run.

Ah, well, the Ballers had beaten the Modesto Roadsters three days earlier on  questionable calls; they could well have lost this contest on one. 

Winning pitcher: Jaren Jackson (8-4)   Losing pitcher: Christian Díaz (3-2)  Save: Matthew Taubensee (9

Time: 2:55   Attendance: 2,256

Good bullpen work by Brady Chávez, Tyler Bates, and Nathan Darden, not something we’ve come to expect from the B’s, held the visitors in check long enough for Jeter Ybarra to reach second on a single and a wild pitch to place the potential tying run in scoring position with no one out in the bottom of the ninth. Brock Mayer, pinch running for him,  still was there when the game ended,

They say that turnabout is fair play; on Wednesday the twenty-sixth , Oaktown zapped Zootown by the overwhelming score of 17-5. The Ballers massacred Mason Martínez, a righty whom Missoula had  acquired from the Tri-City Valleycats of the Frontier League in exchange for the always in demand Player to be Named Later. He made his PBL appearance on August 20 and shut out the feared Long Beach Coast over seven innings in what turned out to be a 4-0 victory and the Paddleheads’ only white wash win of the season.

Mason’s modus operandi on that occasion was to pitch to contact. He used the same technique on the twenty-sixth, but the result was considerably less successful. Martínez lasted three frames and surrendered seven runs, all earned, on five hits and as many walks while registering but one strike out. The B’s scored a quick two runs to take the lead in the bottom of the first. Missoula wiped that out in their next turn at bat, but their hosts plated three in the third on a double by Jeter Ybarra and a two RBI single by Tristan Moore.Their guests never came closing to catching up after that. Even by Pioneer Baseball League standards, the game was decided after four innings,

Winning pitcher: David Thomas (3-1)   Losing pitcher: Mason Martínez (1-1)

Time: 2:57   Attendance: 2,078

The Ballers’ mound work was adequate; but, it goes without saying, the story was their offense. Brendan O’Sullivan was the only batter in the starting line up to go hitless, and he got a walk. Tristan Moore got four hits and drove in five runs in five at bats. Ybarra went three for five, with two doubles and three 

RBI. Esai Santos, well out of his slump, had a multi-hit night that included a two bagger and a pair of ribbies.

You’d think after a defeat like that, the mountain boys would have slunk away in shame.  Instead, they carried a 2-0 lead over the first and a half innings on the twenty-seventh. They got those two runs off hard luck Ren Abe Arias, who, nonetheless, managed to get credit for a complete game. He had been stymied an out short of one on August 2  after throwing  130 pitches against the B’s  for the RedPocket Mobiles and  again on the fifteenth, this time pitching for them against Long Beach.

Oakland managed to overcome Missoula’s lead in the seventh but wasted an opportunity to go ahead when Leehey got picked off at first with a runner on second and two down.. The 

Ballers  did take the lead in the eighth with Tristan Moore’s solo shot round tripper to left center.   They blew that advantage in the top of the ninth. Abe Arias had kept the PaddleHeads off the board for seven consecutive innings when Sergio Gutiérrez blasted a 3-1 offering into the what looked like to my weakened eyes the Missoula bullpen in right, a shot unanswered by the Ballers in their final chance to win in regulation.

The Shoot Out at the KO corral wasn’t as close as the tie game that preceded it; Nich Klemp’s 4 “home runs” easily bested Leehey’s one fence clearer.

There was no winning or losing pitcher.

Missoula won in first round of KO Inning: Nich Klemp (3), Nick Leehey (1)

Time: 2:40   Attendance: 2,852

Long Beach, almost assured of a playoff spot, coasted into The Town on Friday, August 28.

Reed Butz was ineffective as Oakland’s starter. The team went south almost as soon as the southpaw toed the rubber. Jacob Jablonski, LBC’s third batter, put them ahead, 3-0. Butz lasted until Emilio Corona hit a two RBI safety that brought James Pazdera to the mound. He allowed one inherited run to score. More probably would have come in if the Coasters were better baserunners. Julio Rosario  and Valek Cisneros also relieved for the Ballers. Rosario yielded a three run four bagger to Emilio Corona, the fourth batter he faced.

The Ballers stayed in their funk in Saturday’s 4:35 game.

Only one of the Coast’s five tallies was earned. Four Coast runners scored on home runs as the B’s sang The Long Coast Long Ball Blues. 

Just when you thought the Ballers would bid farewell for the season with another loss on Sunday afternoon’s Fan Appreciation Day, they blew the Coast out of the water with a game in which the total of runs scored by both teams was 40, the number of their hits also was 40, and they combined to commit four errors.

The Ballers sent their fans home happy.

 At 20th and Wood, it’s wait ’til next year. In the meantime, the B’s are off to Marysville for a six game series against Yuba-Sutter. Next Monday, I’ll  report on what happens there. It’s been fun watch the Ballers and a privilege to pass my observations on to you.