Category: Oakland Ballers

Oakland Ballers Season wrap up: Ballers are the Champions in only their second season

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Oakland Ballers the 2025 Pioneer Champions celebrate their Championship victory over the Idaho Falls Chukars 8-1 on Sun Sep 21, 2025 (Oakland Ballers photo)

updated Tuesday, September 23, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–If the Oakland Ballers; two years in the Pioneer Baseball League, the reincarnation of the short season, affiliated Pioneer League, has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. A corollary of this insight is that no lead is safe and, as they say in the investment pitches, past performance is no guarantee of future profits.

Last year’s Ballers finished the season on top of the resurrected league only to be eliminated in the division series, the playoff round that precedes the championship round. This year’s Ballers set a PBL record for wins, going 73-23. The publicity departments of both the league and the team usually refer to this as “the modern era.” I prefer to call the two entities, which play (or played) by very different rules, by their distinct names. On their way to finishing first in both the halves of the regular season, the B’s won 13 consecutive series.

They faced tough opposition in the Idaho Falls Chukars, who had clinched the North Division championship by defeating the Missoula Paddlewheers, 22-3, after splitting the first two games of the division round.

The Chukars defeated the Ballers soundly in both of the games played in Idaho Falls, taking the opener, 5-3, on September 16.The B’s scored all of their runs in the first two frames. Tremayne Cobb was the only Baller to manage an extra base hit off the five hurlers the Chukars sent to the mound.

The next evening, Noah Millikan, the ace of Oakland’s starting rotation ,lasted a mere lasted a mere two-thirds of an inning, in which he managed to yield six runs, all earned, in a 15-10 drubbing that sent the teams back to Oakland, with the B’s needing to sweep the three games scheduled to be played in West Oakland.

A game in the friendly confines of Raimondi Park, where everybody knows your name, is a family affair. On the day the Ballers claimed the division crown, I had been in line behind the mother of umpire Ricardo Ramírez. l sat behind the mother of Ballers manager Aaron Miles, at the game on Saturday the 20th, when the B’s tied the Championship Round at two all. We jabbered away all game long.

Friendships form quickly at Raimondi, and I’ve met some wonderful people there whom I’m now proud to call, not just my baseball buddies, but friends.

Friday, September 19th, in the first of three elimination games over the weekend, Oakland stayed alive by trouncing Idaho Falls, 10-2, with a 13 hit onslaught led by Tyler Lozano, who went 3-4, with two RBI, and two hits each by Tremayne Cobb, Christian Almanza, and Danny Harris. Almanza and Lozano went yard. The win went to Lluke short, who allowed one earned run in five innings of work. He also allowed the visitors’ other, unearned, run. James Colyer, Zach St. Pierre, Conner Richardson, and Caleb Franzen combined to hold the Chukars scoreless over the remaining four innings. All but St. Pierre, who gave up two hits and a walk to the three batters he faced, were effective.

The home team pulled even on Saturday evening in a contest that, to judge by the final score of 8-3, looked like an easy romp but really was a tightly fought duel, in which the B’s trailed, 2-0, after 4-1/2 innings before taking a 3-2 lead that stood until their four run breakout in the seventh. Gabe Tanner got the win for his 5-1/3 frames of two run, ten hit pitching .Connor Sullivan put the visitors down in order to earn the save. The player who really saved the game was Michael O’Hara with his incredible grab of Eddy Pelic’s with a runner on third and no outs that sent him crashing into the outfield fence to end the eighth and preserve the one run lead the B’s were enjoying at the time.

Earlier that evening, in the top of the fifth Esai Santos had made the best throw from the outfield to home that I ever have seen, and I’ve been watching baseball seriously since 1950. Tom McCaffre was on second with two down. Spencer Rich smacked a single to right.

McCaffrey advanced to third and headed for home. Santos’s throw arrived in Lozano’s mitt at the exact moment that McCaffrey reached the plate. but he couldn’t get past Lozano; the B’s receiver didn’t even need to twitch as he applied the tag. I was sitting in the third row, right behind the plate and had a clear view of the play, and I was flabbergasted.

It all came down to game five. Shane Spencer started for Idaho Falls. While sitting in the Adirondack chairs in front of the entrance to the grandstand, waiting for the gates to open, his grandparents and I had a stilted but not unfriendly chat. (I told you that baseball at Raimondi is a family affair). Whenthe gates opened, we said our somewhat strained farewells, and I added, “I hope he pitches a good game and his relievers let him down.” After a rough start he did, and, after 6-1/3 innings, they did. I was glad of the Ballers’ win, and I bear no ill will towards Spencer’s grandparents, but I did derive a sneaky satisfaction from the irony of their post game flight bringing them home to . . . Las Vegas.

Spencer’s difficulties began in the first episode, when he had trouble with his command and also couldn’t keep the Ballers’ baserunners from stealing at will.Although the Chugars’ righty logged back to back Ks against the hard hitting Christian Almanza and Cam Bufford, Jack Allgeyer gave Miles Men a three run lead with home run over the right field fence that plated Cobb, who had led off with a single to right, and Santos, who had walked, before him. Walks to Lozano and Harris in the second set the stage for Cobb’s RBI single to left that put Oakland up, 3-0..

After that, Spencer was lights out. He gave up an infield single to Harris in the third, and that was the last time a Baller reached base on him until Harris again singled, this time to center, to lead off the bottom of the eighth. Spencer retired Cobb on a fly to center and then exited the game, still responsible for the runner on first. The big hit was Bufford’s three run blast to dead center field, his second three run four bagger in two days.

The Ballers showed off some glittering defense. Allgeyer made a sliding pick of Johnny Pappas’ second inning, bases loaded slow grounder. jumped to his feet, and threw the Chukar catcher out at first to end the inning.

Noah Millikan, the ace of the Ballers’ rotation, got the start but had to exit after only two innings of shutout baseball with shoulder stiffness after two innings of shutout baseball. He surrendered two hits and three walks. Adam Bogosian relieved him and earned the win with 3-1/3 innings of stellar mound labor. Dylan Delvecchio and James Collyer held opposing batters hitless, but Oakland’s closer, Connor Sullivan, coughed up a leadoff homer to Trevor Rogers in the ninth. But it was too little, too late for the Chugars, and the newest Oakland team has won all the marbles.

For at least the second time this season, 860 AM, The Answer chose not to broadcast the game. It aired on a weak station in Palo Alto that was nearly inaudible inside the ballpark.

It would be fun to hear cries of “Break up the Ballers,”and we might very well hear them, but the labyrinthian eligibility rules for the Pioneer Baseball League will do that in a few years without any fishy fire sale. The PBL promotess repeated perpetual renewal

So, what can we expect from the 2026 Oakland Ballers? If the past is any guide to the future, we can expect a whole lot more of the unexpected.

Oakland Ballers weekly report: Ballers host Championship series in game 3 Friday at Raimondi

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Oakland Ballers mascot Scrappy the Possum is surrounded by Ballers fans after celebrating a series win during the Ballers last homestand at Raimondi Park in Oakland (photo by the Oakland Ballers)

September 15, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–It wasn’t always pretty, it wasn’t always free of errors, physical or mental, but it was an exciting three game series that saw the team from the town defeat the visiting Ogden Raptors, two games to one, in a hard fought trio of games that contrasted vividly with the Pioneer Baseball League’s reputation as a hitter friendly circuit. The rivals managed to score only ten runs between them and never were separated by more than two tallies.

The Ballers took the opener, 4-2 Their ace righty, Noah Milllikan, was tentative in the first two frames, loading the bases in the first and allowing an opposite field solo home run in the second to Christian Hall. Both the B’s and the Raptors have a slugging left handed first baseman named Christian. It probably doesn’t mean a thing, but it’s emblematic of how closely matched the rival squads were.

The milkman then settled down to throw a total of 106 pitches before tiring and exiting the game after seven innings on the mound, marred only by an unearned run in the sixth, facilitated by second baseman Danny Harris IV’s throwing error that allowed Carmine Lane to cross the plate. Harris’s near fatal error came after he had given a master class in fielding with a couple of sparklers earlier in the struggle.

The Ballers’ set up man,Conner Richardson’s eighth inning mirrored Millikan’s first, no runs, one hit, and three stranded. Connor Sullivan earned the save with two K’s and a fly to right that got the Ballers off on the right foot before Ogden came back to tie the series on the 12th.

Friday the 12th saw the Raptors knot up the series with a 2-1 squeaker. Five Ogden hurlers combined to hold the home team to one run on five hits—all singles—, three walks, a wild pitch, and a hit batter. Starting starboarder Cole Stasio led the way and yielded the sole Oakland tally.

It came on a two out rally in the fourth in which Lou Helmig walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch and came home on Harris’s single to center. Ogden got both of their runs in the seventh on Conner Bagnieski’s lead off single to right and, after Cole Jordan flew out to the center field warning track, Christian Hall’s two run four bagger to right center.

Alain López and Ryan Velázquez, who earned the save, each pitched a scoreless inning to frustrate Oakland’s hopes for a comeback.

Saturday’s rubber game was classic baseball, the type of game that we old timers savor. The Raptors got plenty of nothing, and the Ballers didn’t get much of anything either. Each squad got five hits, none for extra bases.

The Raptors’ starter, Austyn Coleman, surrendered one run over 6-2/3 episodes, and it was both unearned and a legacy that Coleman”s successor, Cameron Edmonson, allowed to score . That heartbreaking tally came when Nick Leehey led off with a single to center. TJ McKenzie ran for him and, to nobody’ s surprise, stole second.

After Tremayne Cobb fouled out to first, Esai Santos drew a base on balls. Then McKenzie and Santospulled off a double steal, in the process of of which Ogden catcher Carmine Lane lost control of the ball. After that, it was all over except for the anxiety and then the shouting.

Sunday the 14th and Monday, the 15th, were travel days for Oaktown’s standard bearers Their destination is Idaho Falls, home of the Chukars, who also took their series, 2-1, against the regular season Northern Division Champion Missoula Paddlewheelers. The Chukaars will not be a negligible opponent; they took Sunday’s deciding game, 22-3. Contrast that to the nail biters, I’ve just been talking about.

The games in Idaho Falls are scheduled for Tuesday the 16th and Wednesday and the 17th. Then a day to travel back to West Oakland for what could be the last of the best three out five game Championship Division series. Or the suspense could continue until one team manages to win for a third time, and, with it, the 2025 Pioneer Baseball League crown.

Games one and two of the Championship Round will be played in Idaho Falls on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 16th and 17th. Then it’s one day to travel to West Oakland, and at 6:35 Friday evening, September 19, it will be game three of the best three out of five series. The division champions will battle it out until one of them notches its third win and goes home as the champions of 2025 Pioneer Baseball League season.

Oakland Ballers Weekly Report By Lewis Rubman

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Oakland Ballers Millikan Cements has a good shot at being the Pioneer League Pitcher of the Year (photo by the Oakland Ballers)

Oakland Ballers Weekly Report

Monday, September 8, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

What’s as rare as a day in June? A complete game in the Pioneer Baseball League is one possible answer. And the past week in Raimondi Park gave us some pretty rare pitching, including one or two complete games, depending on how you look at it, several stretches that cast doubt on the PBL’s fame as a hitter’s league, and a pitch for AI.

The Ballers opened their last home stand of the season last Tuesday, September 2nd, and in the process broke the PBL record for most wins in a season with 70. But it wasn’t Gabe Tanner, who notched his ninth victory against no defeats, who tossed the rarity.

That distinction went to Great Falls’ Brandon Moody, whose record fell to 2-5 after holding the B’s to two runs, both earned, on six hits on to two walks and a wild pitch, over the the eight innings in which they went to bat.

One of those hits was Davis Drewek’s two run blast over the center field fence with Esai Santos, who had walked, with one down in the top of the first. Tanner pitched six excellent innings, surrendering the Voyagers’ lone tally, which came on Emilio Corona’s solo shot into left field night.

James Colyer and Conner Richardson hit the visitors scoreless in the seventh and eighth, respectively, setting the scene for Connor Sullivan’s 19th save, which tied the league’s record in that category. It also was Aaron Miles’ 100th win as the Ballers’ manager.

The Voyagers got even on Wednesday evening, defeating their hosts, 6-3. The contest again featured some excellent mound work by the visitors.

Danny Galvan, their starter, gave up all of the Ballers’ runs in the first episode. TJ McKenzie led off with a walk, stole second, and scored on Cam Bufford’s one out single to right. Then Christian Amanza went yard to the opposite field. The B’s would not score again that night.

Galvan would get an out in the bottom of the sixth, followed by shutout frames by Mitchell Grannan (1-2/3 IP) and Nolan Pender, whose inning of work earned him his seventh save of the year. Thursday the fourth saw Noah Millikan hurl six shutout frames, which brought his streak of consecutive goose eggs up to 22.

It also improved his won-lost balance sheet to 7-1 and lowered his ERA to a most non PBL like 2.12. Bufford’s full count seventh inning four bagger made the speedy and versatile rookie the B’s sole member of the 20-20 club. Oh, and by the way, Oakland won, 7-2.

The week’s parade of powerful pitching proceeded apace on Friday the fifth. The Ballers’ pitching was powerful, but the game was called due to a power outage after six innings. Luke Short had held the Voyagers scoreless on three hits and a walk in that period, and Caleb Franzen was about to relieve him in top of the seventh, but I don’t think anyone saw him actually throw a pitch.

I know I didn’t, and the box score doesn’t show him as having done so. That leaves the question of whether or not Short should be credited with a complete game. In any case, it keeps pitching in the spotlight. Which is more than stanchions could do.

Oakland was ahead, 5-0, on homers by Lou Helmig and irrepressible Amanza and an RBI single by the multi-faceted Bufford, and that was the final score. No one I saw seemed unhappy with the result, especially since the night was turning cold.

Monday’s San Francisco Chronicle finally gave the Ballers some coverage when it printed, below the fold, a piece by Shayna Rubin, with the headline, “Manager Milles let AI take his job for the night.” Res ipsa loquitur.

The game itself was a squeaker which—you guessed it—was notable for the pitchers’ performances.Sam Lavin threw 119 pitches for Great Falls over seven innings and allowed the B’s only one run. It came in his last inning on the bump and was the result of a round tripper to left center by—yes, indeed—Cam Bufford.

Cam Cowan gave up an unearned run in the eighth, and Robert Kelley shut the B’s out in the ninth. The 161 pitches the Voyagers threw was hardly an elegant job, but they held powerful B’s to two runs over nine innings.

Reed Butz held Great Falls to four hits and a walk over seven scoreless frames. James Colyer gave up a hit and a walk in two thirds of an inning, and Connor Sullivan blew the lead by coughing up two earned runs on two hits, one of which was Kyle Schack’s homer with AJ Fritz, who had singled, on board.

That hardly seems like a vindication of the advice AI gave manager Miles. Rubin reported that he said that he would have used Sullivan to attempt the four out save if making the decision on his own. But do we need machines to tell us to make the mistakes we would have made without them?

Oakland won the game in the first knockout round. Bufford—who else—hit two home runs, which was all it took. It’s nice they won, but should games be decided by a crap shoot?

And that takes us to Sunday’s season finale. Would you believe a scoreless tie for eight innings, ending in a 2-1 Great Falls win? You’d better believe it, because that’s what happened. The Voyagers’ Nick Marshall went into the ninth without having let a single Baller cross the plate.

Seven Oakland hurlers had blanked Great Falls over eight innings before a sacrifice fly by Fritz and an RBI single by Corona off Zach St. Pierre, who had been lights out in the eighth, put the home town champions down, 2-0.

Dillon Tatum greeted Marshall by going yard to left, and that was it for the Voyagers’ starter, who had thrown 134 pitches and allowed only six hitters, including Tatum’s near equalizer, four free passes, and a hit batter. Wyatt Cameron fanned the three batters he faced to earn his eighth save.

The semi-final round of the playoffs will begin at Raimondi Park at 6:35 this coming Thursday evening, when the Ballers will face the Ogden Raptors in the first of a best two out of three game series. The two teams will meet again in West Oakland on Friday, and, if a third game is necessary, tickets will go on sale immediately after the game ends, for the winner take all shot at advancing to the championship round. That game would be played on Saturday, also at 20th and Wood.

And that was the week that was.

Oakland Ballers weekly report By Lewis Rubman Tue Sep 2, 2025

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The Oakland Ballers just edged the Yuba Sutter High Wheelers 5-4 on Sun Aug 31, 2025 at Raimondi Field in West Oakland (photo by the Oakland Ballers)

Oakland Ballers weekly report by Lewis Rubman Tue Sep 2, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Fats Waller was right. There’s been a change in the weather, a change in the sea, from now on there’s gonna be a change in me. For the rest of the Pioneer Baseball League season and its playoffs, instead of reporting daily on all the Ballers’ home games, I’ll be writing a weekly column on the team’s constant contradictions, its state of protean stasis.

Sandymount Strand has nothing on the base paths of Raimondi Field. Indeed, the coexistence of change and permanence and the related theme of cyclical repetition are prominent in many of my favorite writers, among whom are Joyce, Borges, José Emilio Pacheco, Rolfe Humphreys, the author of “Polo Grounds,” —which I consider the best baseball poem fever written — and translator of Heraclitus ‘s De rerum naturæ, which he democratically renders as The Way Things Are.

The Argos, whose crew, the Argonauts, searched the known world in search of the golden fleece, was destroyed and rebuilt over and over again. The debate over whether or not it was one ship or many, has repeated itself over the centuries and, as you read this, continues to this day.

Were the Oakland Athletics one team or 54? Or were they a new team with each passing day? Borges slyly signaled the practical futility of such nagging doubts when he called one of his essays, “A New Refutation of Time.”

This change in my schedule is not, however, a matter of high philosophical interest, however much fun it might be to play with such a conceit. It is a practical demonstration that time is always with us, that it lives in us and we live in it.

Since suffering a series of falls a month or two ago, I ‘ve needed a walker, or at least a cane to get around, and my energy levels fluctuate unpredictably. In short, as I approach my 85th birthday, I can’t meet the exigencies that have done in many a younger reporter.

My new way of doing things will, I hope, offer both you and me several advantages. I’ll be able to attend games without having to carefully follow the action on the field and simultaneously write coherently and accurately about it. I also should have time and perspective to notice trends and follow ongoing stories.

The new time frame will allow me to reflect a bit on what I’m about to say instead of putting my fingers to the keyboard helter skelter and turning out numerous typos, incoherences, lacunæ, and plain old fashioned factual errors.

I had played with the idea of doing podcasts, but, when I’m on my game, I write better than I speak. And, I’m proud and humbled to say, that several readers have complimented me on my recaps, warts and all.

I’ll write occasional pieces during the off season and plan on returning to the weekly column in May.

Fans and other followers of the fortunes of the Oakland Ballers shouldn’t have trouble handling the change. The team’s motto seems to be, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” The winningest team in professional baseball manages to to blow leads with alarming frequency, often against vastly inferior opponents.

The B’s clinched the first half pennant on a walk off pinch hit single by Esai Santos against the Boise Hawks on August 24. Two days later, they opened the second half in Marysville by jumping to a 5-1 lead against the rapidly fading Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers.

Yuba-Sutter reacted by scoring nine runs in the bottom of the fifth and went on to deflate the high flying Ballers, 12-8. All of the High Wheeler’s runs came against the then recent additions to the Ballers’ roster, Dylan Delveccho and Malik Binns.

New acquisitions are a frequent feature of Oakland’s lineup. TJ McKenzie had been a standout as a franchise player for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox (née Northern Colorado Owlz) over the first half of the season. His OPS was a staggering .917 and he had stolen 32 bases in 36 attempts.

The August 26 loss to Yuba-Sutter marked his first appearance in a Ballers uniform. The expression “franchise player” has a specific—and probably unique—meaning in the PBL. Each team is allowed one, and he

  • must have played at least two years in the league • must have finished the previous season with the team that designates him as a franchise player • cannot spend more than one season as a franchise player.

Being a franchise player exempts position players from the requirement that they have no more than two years’ professional experience as of January 1 of the season’s year. (There are more details about what constitutes a professional season, but you get the idea).

The Ballers don’t have to lose a game to turn a laugher into a nail biter. On August 17, they were leading the Rocky Mountain Vibes 12-1 at the half-way mark. The game went into the eighth tied at 13 before Oakland eked out a 14-13 win.

Following last Tuesday’s loss, the B’s came back to plaster the High Wheelers, 14-3 and 14-0 in their next two encounters.They squeezed out a 7-6 win on Friday night before falling to them 11-5 on Saturday and then pulling out a 5-4 series-ending win with ninth inning RBI singles by Michael O’Hara and the clutch hitting Santos.

The weekend games presented an interesting and infuriating problem for East Bay based Ballers fans. 960 AM, which bills itself breathlessly as “The Answer,” chose to air the San José State football game on Saturday. 1220 AM, of Palo Alto, transmitted a barely audible narration, in which play by play announcer Nevada Cullen, with no one to back him up and suffering from cold symptoms, got so fed up that he complained about the post game home run derby, which he called one of the most stupid innovations, along with the uncaught third strike rule, of the PBL. He then said that he had just received notice that he had been fired for insulting the league. I suspected a joke, and I was right. Cullen was back on the job on Sunday, still suffering from what sounded like a URI.

This week’s six game series against the Great Falls Voyagers will be a tune up for the playoffs. If the hometown heroes gain at least a split against the Voyagers, they will break the PBL’s record for games won in the regular season. They have announced that the first two playoff games will be played in West Oakland, on September 11th and12th and that tickets for them have gone on sale.

The B’s also announced that Two $hort won’t be able to perform at this coming Saturday’s block party, but that the other plans for the party and Fan Appreciation Day still are in place. Hot dogs will go for $2 up until the first pitch is thrown, and you can get anything (or nothing) served in a plastic helmet for $2 a helmet.

The first 200 fans through the gates will get free Scrappy the Rally Possum bobbleheads. They originally had been scheduled to be given away early in the season, but supply chain problems put the kibosh on that.

The fans who would have received the bobbleheads got vouchers that were redeemable a week or so ago, but those of us who missed out on that have this one last chance (for this season, at least) to obtain this backhanded tribute to the Oakland Coliseum, which Peter Gammons once called—correctly—the best in the major leagues.

Game times will be 6:35 on Tuesday through Friday, 4:35 on Saturday, and, in a slight variation from the usual, 4:35 on Sunday as well.

I’ll write occasional pieces during the off season and plan on returning to the weekly column in May.

My future coverage of the Giants is, at this point, undecided. I’ve been working on ways of getting to and from Oracle Park safely. I’m very confident that I can arrange to be dropped off and picked up for day games next year, but scheduling for the few remaining ones in 2025 make a trial run problematic.

Ballers rally for six runs in eighth to beat High Wheelers 11-8 at Raimondi

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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.

Oakland Ballers game wrap: Ballers rally for 4 runs to walk off with 7-6 win at Raimondi Park Tuesday

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Oakland Ballers Jake Allgeyer’s walk off hit wins it in the bottom of the ninth inning at Raimondi Park in Oakland against the Yuba Sutter High Wheelers on Tue Aug 5, 2025 (Oakland Ballers photo)

Yuba-Sutter (2nd 1/2:8-11;2025:37-30) 000 006 000 6 10 2

Oakland (2nd half:14-5,2025: 51-16) 020 100 004 7 7 2

Time: 2:57

Attendance: 2,603

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Your Oakland Ballers returned this evening for the second part of their back to back, home and home series against their arch rivals, the Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers. The local nine had taken the measure of last year’s Pioneer Baseball League champs, who had been based in Davis for the ’24 campaign, by defeating them in five of the six contests in Marysville.

The B’s won, 7-6, with a stunning four run outburst in the bottom of the ninth that wiped out the effects of their excruciating sixth inning meltdown. That unfortunate interlude had let the visitors turn a 3-0 Oakland lead into a seemingly impregnable 6-3 High Wheeler advantage

The Ballers held the upper hand for the first five frames of the contest. Their starter, Noah Millikan. kept the HIgh Wheelers off the basepaths until the third inning, when Connor Denning reached on a single. But he was removed in a double play liner to third. Millikan seemed to be tiring in the fourth, but all he surrendered was a single to River Osak.

The High Wheelers started to race around the bases in their next turn at the plate. Kirkland Banks led off with a walk. A sparkling double play provided a brief respite; Randy Flores hit a hard line drive that Tyler Best corralled in left, threw to cutoff man Tremayne Cobb who snapped a bullet to Christian Almanza at first to retire Flores.

Evan Berkey then homered to left, and Gia Brusa doubled to right, and that was it for Millikan. His replacement, Adam Bogosian never had any steam to run out of. He didn’t retire any of the five batters he faced. One of them walked, and the other four got hits, one of them an RBI double by Orak. The Baller defence contributed to the debacle, committing two chargeable errors, not to mention sins of omission.

That’s the way things stood, with Yuba-Sutter ahead, 6-3, until the Ballers bounced back like a Spalding (pronounced Spall-DEEN) in their last turn at bat.

The resurgence of the killer B’s came out of nowhere. The High Wheelers’ starting pitcher, Brett Woznik had held them to three runs on five hits and a couple of walks over seven innings, excellent work by Pioneer League standards. Mason Bryant had set the hosts down in order in the eighth and seemed ready to cruise to an easy save.

He began the inning by walking Cam Bufford, who at two for three, seemed to be coming out of his recent slump. Then he walked Dillon Tatum, who had gone hitless in three at bats. Esai Santos, a vital cog in several Baller late inning comebacks, pinch hit for Tyler Best and singled to center.

Both runners wisely refrained from trying to advance more than 90 feet. With the bases FOB (full of Ballers), Davis Drewek was called out on strikes. Two outs were all that separated Yuba-Sutter from a series tying win.

The powerful Lou Helmig pinch hit for Darryll Buggs. Bryant walked him, and Oakland trailed 6-4, the bases remained loaded, but Oakland was running out of outs, and Bryant was out of the game. Ethan Bates (listed as Joe in the box score) walked Cobb.

Now it was 6-5 as Oakland kept the line moving. Jake Allgeyer came to the plate, one for four so far. The count went to 1-1. Allgeyer singled to center. Buggs and Santos raced home, and, as the saying goes, the crowd roared.

Like every Wednesday when the Ballers are in town, is a Winning Wednesday at Raimondi. The first 500 fans to arrive will receive a commemorative cup and a poster. Everyone will have the chance to enter ano-cost raffle to a custom Green Day x Ballers bike designed by Billie Joe Armstrong. Game time is scheduled for 6:35pm PT

Oakland Ballers game wrap: Ballers KO Sky Sox 6-5 after 5-5 draw at Raimondi

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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

Oakland Ballers game wrap: Ballers come up with 9-8 win on Cobb’s walk off ninth inning dinger

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The Oakland Ballers Treymayne Cobb had lots of reasons to be thrilled after his ninth inning walk off home run against the Colorado Springs Sky Sox at Raimondi Park in Oakland on Sat Jul 26, 2025 (Oakland Ballers X photo)

Colorado Springs (2nd half:6-5;2025:15-43) 212 020 001 8 14 1

Oakland Ballers (2nd half:6-5;2025:44-15) 430 000 101 9 13 1

Time: 3:15

Attendance: Not announced

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Baseball, especially as it’s been practiced at 18th and Woodin West Oakland this last week, is the damndest calling. Just when you think you’ve witnessed every variety of the ineluctable modality of the visible, it bites you in the ass with a new one.

Take, for example, the variation wrought Saturday afternoon and evening on the array of improbabilities with which the Colorado Springs Sky Sox and Oakland Baller have been regaling us since Tuesday night.

The outcome of Saturday’s game, a 9-8 Ballers win, decided on a one out, full count pinch hit home run by Tremayne Cobb, thrilling as it was, also was the final exclamation point to a three and a quarter hour textbook example of revised expectations.

For all my literary allusions, words fail me. Still, putting real, surreal, and deja vu together a shot may be made at what this hybrid actually was like to look at.

Oakland logged ten plate appearances, resulting in four runs in the first and put another three tallies on the board in the second. Sounds like another Baller breakout, like the one that led to the blowing of a six run lead in the eighth in the series opener.

Cobb’s last pitch homer echoed Wednesday’s failed heroics that ended with a knock out inning defeat. Tuesday and Wednesday’s crowds grew progressively apprehensive as they saw their team’s prospects fade away like a Christy Mathewson screwball.

Saturday night’s audience also began to fidget as the sky darkened, the temperature dropped, and the score remained locked at seven. The fans’ moodlightened when Oakland pulled ahead, 8-7 in the seventh, and spirits remained buoyant even when Colorado Springs once again tied the score in the top of the ninth.

The possibility of failure lurked, but that seemed only to whet the home town partisans’ appetite to see their team confront and surmount that possibility, After four games we were sensing a situation worthy of being called dramatic. The drama was intensified when Cobb was announced a pinch hitter when failure could have sent us into another knock out inning crap shoot. But there was no failure. Cobb came through, and for a few minutes, all seemed right in the world.

Colorado Springs used seven pitchers. Starter Jacob Norris lasted an inning and threw 50 pitches, which resulted in four runs, all earned, on four hits, including a three run dinger by Cam Bufford. Eldrige Armstrong was more economical; it took him only 32 pitches to get through the second frame, and he surrendered only three runs,—like those charged to Norris, all earned—on three hits and a walk.

Joe Kinsky and Maykol López hurled a couple of scoreless frames each to allow the Sky Sox to hold on while the offence knotted the score at seven, Ryan Velásquez replaced López when we’d taken our seats after we sang our request to root, root, root for the Ballers.

A bad throw by TJ McKenzie allowed Jake Allgeyer, who was advancing to third on Esai Santos’ single to right, to score an unearned run that gained the Ballers a tie in their half of the seventh. In spite of a walk and a wild pitch, Velásquez got out of the seventh without allowing Oakland advance beyond a tie when Ethan Ross replaced him with one down in the home eight.

It took him two pitches to preserve the tie until the bottom of the ninth. It took his replacement, Alain López 12 pitches to dispose of Lou Helmig on a line drive to second and serve the game winning blast to Cobb.

Here’s a summary, courtesy of the Ballers, of how their five moundsmen fared: IP H R ER BB SO HR WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO NP

B. Eglite 2.2 6 5 5 3 4 1 0 0 0 0 13 16 2 1 71

Adam Bogosian 2.1 4 2 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 10 11 1 4 45

Dylan Matsuoka 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 3 4 0 2 14

James Colyer 1.0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 13

Caleb Franzen (W, 3-0) 2.0 2 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 9 9 3 2 30

Totals 9.0 14 8 8 3 9 2 1 0 1 0 38 43 6 9 173

Dillon Tatum was the only batter in the B’s starting lineup who did get at least one hit, going 0-3. No matter; Cobb pinch hit for him. Oakland batters connected for four extra base hits; Nick Leehey and Gelmig, for doubles; Cam Bufford and—I can’t say this enhough—Cobb for home runs.

The first pitch of the final game of this confounding six game series is scheduled for 1:05pm PT Sunday, afternoon. I have no idea what to expect at the game, but before it you can celebrate Halloween in July, and, if you bring kids, you can watch them run the bases after hostilities have ceased, when you and the kids can talk with the players and get their autographs.

The team will depart for a six game visit to the Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers this coming Tuesday through Sunday and then return for six home games against those same division rivals on Tuesday, August 5.

Whether you’re pre-gaming with the Kings or celebrating an A’s win, Cyprus Grille at the Holiday Inn Sacramento Downtown – Arena is your downtown go-to.

⚡Craft cocktails? Check.
🔥Game-day bites? Oh yeah.
🏟️Steps from Golden 1 Center? You bet.

Open daily, Cyprus Grille is serving up local flavor with a front-row seat to the action. Stop by before or after the game—or make it your new downtown hangout.

Cyprus Grille—where fans fuel up.

📍Located inside the Holiday Inn Sacramento Downtown – Arena @ 300 J Street

Happy Hour – 4pm-6pm

Show your ticket for additional discounts when dining in. 

Oakland Baller post game wrap: Ballers crush Sky Sox with 7 run first inning 14-2 at Raimondi

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The Oakland Ballers walked off with a huge win over the Colorado Springs Sky Sox at Raimondi Park in Oakland on Fri July 25, 2025 (Oakland Ballers photo)

Colorado Springs (2nd half: 6-4, 2025: 15-42) 000 010 010 2 8 1

Oakland (2nd half: 5-5, 2025:43-15) 720 300 11x 14 16 2

Time: 2:48

Attendance: 2,82

Friday, July 25, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The Oakland Ballers Thursday night debacle must have been some sort of shock therapy for any complacency tour hometown heroes might have felt on having clinched the home field advantage in all the games they’ll play in the September postseason playoffs.

The drubbing they took last night served as shock therapy for Saturday night’s overwhelming victory of their erstwhile tormentors. The B’s scored early and often, amassing 14 runs in their crushing over the Colorado Springs Sky Sox.

Zach St. Pierre with a little help from three of his friends in the bullpen held the visiting Sky Sox to a pair of tallies.

I often think of a baseball game as a play that, like Caesar’s Gaul, is divided into three parts, each of which contains three scenes. Occasionally there’s an epilogue, which in the case of the Pioneer Baseball League consists of the Knock Out Inning, a peculiarity that often yields an anti-climactic and arbitrary ending. Videlecut, last Tuesday night at Raimondi Park.

Friday night’s performance in West Oakland was something new and completely different. It began with a scene of massive destruction and just kept rolling along until the Ballers had wiped out the Sky Sox, 14-2.

The hosts made ten plate appearances in the bottom of the first, scoring seven runs on five hits against Johann Castillo, the visitors’ starting and losing pitcher, who is the league leader in innings pitched. He lasted five frames Friday night after throwing 127 pitches, to be followed by a trio of relievers, each of whom hurled an inning, with only one of them, Maykol López, emerging unscathed. All told, the beleaguered Sky Sox mound corps threw 191 pitches.

However decisive the Ballers’ triumph was, there was a continuous awareness among the crowd of 2,821 paid attendees that this was a team that blew a six run lead in the ninth inning of its previous encounter with the one it was massacring. The B’s did, after all, make two errors tonight, one of which allowed the Sox to score an unearned run against Sean Kelby in the eighth.

Zach St. Pierre, pinch runner par excellence, held the Sky Sox to one run on five hits, in his six innings of work. His eight strikeouts were a season’s high for him. Tanner Shields, in his first appearance at Raimondi didn’t allow any runs to Colorado Springs and struck out two of their batters but also surrendered a hit and unleashed a wild pitch.

Every batter in the Oakland lineup got at least one hit. Danny Harris and Tyler Lozano, newly returned from the injured list, got three apiece; Tremayne Cobb, Esai Santos, Nick Leehey, two. Santos and Harris hit doubles; Leehey, a triple, his first professional three bagger; and Cobb, Lozano,and Buggs went yard.

The rest is silence.

The tumult and the shouting will resume Saturday afternoon, at 4:35, preceded by a celebration of Native American culture.

Oakland Ballers game wrap: Sky Sox win 4th round in knock out edge Ballers 9-8; Official final an 8-8 draw

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The score says a 8-8 tie the official final but the game went into the books as a 9-8 final as the Colorado Sky Sox win the fourth knock out round at Raimondi Field in Oakland on Thu Jul 24, 2025 (Oakland Ballers image)

Oakland Ballers game wrap:

Colorado Springs (2nd half:6-3;2025:2025:15-41) 001 000 010 8 11 1

Oakland (2nd half:5-4;2025:42-15) 000 030 140 8 9 2

4th round of KO inning

Time:2:53

Attendance: 1,677

Thursday, July 24, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The variegated contests of the six game series between the Colorado Sky Sox and your Oakland Ballers unfolding this week at Raimondi Park took so many unexpended turns that it was difficult to imagine any set of surprises that could surpass them.

But there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, and this Wednesday night’s tangled web of improbabilities provided many of them. As Bill King, baseball’s renaissance man would—and did—say, “Not in your wildest alcoholic nightmare would you ever imagine such events unfolding!” So let me soberly try to summarize some of them.

The game went into the books as a 9-8 win for Colorado Springs,but the official box score showed an 8-8 tie with no winning or losing pitcher. This was owing to the Pioneer Baseball League’s bizarre knock out round rule for deciding tie games.

It resembles a home run derby in which each team provides one batter and a teammate to pitch to him. The details aren’t worth listing, and this time saving device delays games for anywhere between five and 15 minutes while the necessary equipment is put into place. Thursday night, it took four rounds of what the Ballers call the most exciting part of the game to give the visitor’s what went down in the won-lost records as a 9-8 win.

The real game, or games. began with an impressive performance by the Sox starting pitcher, Matthew Lauria. The only hit he allowed in his first four plus innings on the mound was a two out single to right center by Treemayne Cobb. That excellence enabled Colorado to hang on to a 1-0 lead going into the home half of the fifth, when what had been a tight pitchers’ duel turned into a rout in favor of the B’s.

Darryl Buggs led off with a walk and advanced to second on a balk. Cobb brought him home with his second hit, a game tying single to center. That was enough for Dimitri Young to yank Lauria, who for all his mastery, had allowed four walks and committed a fielding error and a balk and thrown 120 pitches.

His replacement, José Ochoa, threw another 31 to close out the frame, leaving the score 3-1 in favor of the home team. Adam Wilbert would follow Ochoa in the pitcher’s box at the beginning of the home sixth and retire the three batters he faced in order giving way to Danny Fox after the gathering of 1,677 fans had finished its choral version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

The game continued to be a close one, with the Ballers pulling further ahead with a run in the eighth and the Sky Sox adding one of their own in the top of the ninth.

The second in this Russian nesting doll of games came in the bottom of the ninth, when the Ballers blew it open with a four run outburst sparked by Nick Leehey’s a two run homer to left center with Dillon Tatum, who had walked, on board.

After that blast , Darryl Buggs doubled to left center and Fox plunked Cobb with a pitch, Jacob Norris relieved Fox and issued a pair of free passes, interspersed by a double steal and Christian Almanza’s sac fly before getting Tatum to pop out to end the carnage. The four runs scored that inning augured well for the B’s but the three runners stranded on the baseball paths were an adumbration of the trouble that lay in wait.

Noah Milllikan had started the game for the B’s and pitched eight full innings—an incredible feat in the PBL—and allowed only two runs on five hits and no walks, while striking out a dozen batters. The long top of the eighth had given his arm a chance to freeze up, and surely Connor Sullivan could be counted on to hold a six run lead for one inning.

We soon learned that he couldn’t. He faced five batters and left with the score at 8-4 and two runners on base, replaced by Caleb Franzen. He was charged with two runs, one of the earned, and allowed four inherited runners to score. The inning was further tarnished by a bad throw on a difficult play that was charged as an error to Cobb and an atrocious and unnecessary throw that catcher Dillon Tatum heaved into center field.

The Ballers loaded the bases with one out against Alain López in their half of the ninth, but they couldn’t push a run across the plate.

Who knows what these two rivals have in store for Friday night’s encounter, which is scheduled to start at 6:35. There’s one thing we can reasonably expect to occur; July 25 is Grateful Dead Night, with a pregame concert scheduled and a large crowd expected.