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Oakland Ballers game recap: Follow the Bouncing Ballers

Published on June 1, 2026June 2, 2026 by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

Oakland Ballers pitcher Aidan Risse (1-1) delivers a pitch against the Red Rocket Mobiles at Raimondi Field in West Oakland Sun May 31, 2026 (Oakland Ballers photo)

Monday, June 1

Oakland, CA

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–In last week’s column, I discussed some of the challenges the Oakland Ballers and the Pioneer Baseball League as a whole were facing. The last week has thrown those challenges into sharper relief.

The league’s decision to save on travel expenses resulted in scheduling anomalies. Instead of playing a set of six game against each visitor, with night games Tuesday through Friday, a mid-afternoon game on Saturday, and an early afternoon contest on Sunday, the Ballers opened the season with a three game series against the Missoula PaddleHeads, the team they had defeated for last year’s championship, three games to two, by sweeping the final three games, all at home, of the five game series.. This year, Missoula took the series, 2-1, which began on Tuesday Mayo 19

On Frida the 22nd, some of the new kids on the block, the Long Beach Coast, came to West Oakland. The B’s came from behind with a 12-11 victory after having trialed 10-9 going into the eighth. Jeter Ybarra’s leadoff blast over the left field fence in the bottom of the ninth tied it up, and T.J. McKenzie’s sacrifice fly to center gave Oakland the win, evening their record at 2-2.

The teams split the last two games of the week. The Coast beat them, 15-12 on a four run top of the ninth in a seesaw battle on Saturday the 23rd, and the Ballers finished the week at 3-3 with a solid 11-5 triumph the next afternoon.

This raised an interesting question. The Coast (who also go by the moniker “Regulators”) and the Ballers had another three games between them scheduled for the following week. Would this be part of the original series or a new one? This is not an idle question, and one reason it was a new series shows how significant the question was.

The Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday contests had a different umpire crew from the three preceding game. Another reason to consider the trio of set-to’s a group of its own is the headline the Coast published in its May 28 recap. Read it and weep.

Grand Beginning Leads Coast to Series Sweep

The Long Beach Coast (6-3) blasted the OaklandBallers (3-6) 9-5

on Thursday night in the Bay Area to secure their first ever series

sweep .

The situation was made more unsettling by scheduling the Wednesday game, usually played at 6:35), for a 1:05 start to accommodate an Oakland Public Schools field trip.

Hardly a student was at sight among the intimate gathering of 1,122 attendees.

Thursday, the 29th, brought in another innovation: the RedPocket Mobiles, owned by the PBL’s cel phone provider. They’re a barnstorming team with no home stadium and, I assume a miniscule fan base. They also have a miniscule won-lost record. They were 1-8 when they hit town and 1-11 when the Ballers, now 6-6, got through with them.

This happy outcome for Ballers’ fans wasn’t just the result of the Mobiles weakness. Please bear with me while I try to relate the Ballers’ current situation to the challenges and shortcomings of the Pioneer League.

The circuit’s labyrinthine eligibility rules not only penalize successful teams by limiting the amount of time they can keep any given player (which is consistent with the PBL’s purpose, which is to develop players), but also fail to provide compensation to those teams that lose players who are—for want of a better expression—termed out. Each year is, as it were, a whole new ball game. This may mean that the Ballers’ marketing plan. which includes merited bragging rights about the team’s championship status, may be misplaced.

There’s much to be enjoyed about Ballersball, but winning isn’t everything. It’s not even not caring if you won or lost but how you played the game; it’s about community, fun, and watching the players mature and improve. And don’t forget the innate beauty of the game, no matter on what level it’s played. And a whole lot more.The Ballers and their followers may have to learn to live with defeat. Remember, I said “may.”

The team’s management has made some moves to improve its personnel. They obtained Cam Bufford, a mainstay of the ’25 Ballers is heading back to his championship roots. Just six days into the Pioneer League season, the Sioux City Explorers have traded 1B/DH Cam Bufford to Oakland in exchange for players to be named later.

Pitchers Matt Lozovoy and UC Berkeley’s Michael Riley, as well as center fielder and third baseman Davis Drewek made their professional debuts on Sunday afternoon. Drewek took fa called third strike as a pinch hitter in the ninth. Lozovoy surrendered two hits but no runs in the eighth, and Riley gave up one hit, a home run, in the ninth.

The Ballers have improved the ballyard’s physical plant. The scoreboard has been improved; it’s now bigger and brighter, but often is too far behind action, and some of its fonts are too small to be read, especially through the protective screens in front of all but the cheapest seats.

The B’s currently are building higher fence in left center and the outfield lighting could be improved. Permit issues have delayed an important improvement, the installation of real toilets to replace the port-a-potties, which will come as a much needed relief.

Here’s a brief rundown of the scores of the Ballers first sweep of the season:

5/29	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
RedPocket Mobiles	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	6	2
Oakland Ballers	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	X	3	5

Winning pitcher: Langston Burkett (1-0) Save: Braydon Nelson (1)

Losing pitcher: Billy Rozakis (0-1)

The team will be on the road for the next two weeks, visiting the Glacier Range Riders,

Great Falls Voyagers, and Missoula PaddleHeads, before returning on Tuesday, June 16th, to the friendly confines of Raimondi Park, to try to wreck some vengeance on the Long Beach Coast.

5/30


RedPocket Mobiles	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	2	0	6	9	0
Oakland Ballers	1	1	2	0	2	1	1	0	X	8	13	0

Winning pitcher: Gabe Tanner (2-1) Save: Langston Burkett (1)

Losing pitcher: Matt Lauria (0-2)

Tanner lasted 7-2/3 innings and threw 111 pitches. It was, alas!, the best outing of a Ballers hurler so far this season.

5/31	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
RedPocket Mobiles	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	9	0
Oakland Ballers	1	0	0	1	1	4	0	0	X	7	8	0

Winning pitcher: Aidan Risse (1-1)

Losing pitcher: Charlie Adamson (0-3)

You can find the Ballers latest individual offensive statistics at https://www.oaklandballers.com/sports/bsb/2026/teams/oaklandballers?view=lineup

I haven’t been able to find all their pitching stats in one place.

The Ballers are averaging a respectable 2,295 attendance in their 12 games.

And that’s how the ball’s been bouncing so far.

Oakland Ballers Report: Follow the bouncing Ballers

Published on May 28, 2026May 28, 2026 by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

Oakland Ballers Cam Buford tunes up before a game at Raimondi Park in West Oakland (photo by Oakland Ballers X)

Monday, May 25, 2026

Oakland, CA

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The first week of the 2026 Pioneer Baseball League was an inauspicious one for the defending champion Oakland Ballers, who managed nothing better than a 3-3 record, losing two out of three games against last year’s Mountain Division champs, the Missoula Paddle Heads and just squeaking by the Long Beach Coast, newcomers to the South Division and the league, also three games to two.

Both the league and the Ballers faced challenges before play began, but we’ll get to that after a brief review of the on-field action.

The Padddleheads demolished the B’s, 11-2 on opening night, Tuesday, the 19th, going ahead when Michael Koszewski blasted a one and two pitch over the left field wall to give the Montanans a lead they never would lose.

Jake Tirk was the only hometown hurler to blank the invaders, whoops: visitors, holding the seven batters he faced in the eighth and ninth frames to a couple of hits and a walk. Starting pitcher Gabe Tanner, who allowed six runs, five earned, on nine hits and three free passes, took the loss.

Shortstop Tremayne Cobb and catcher Jarden’ Collura were the only Ballers with multiple hits, neither for extra bases. The defense committed three errors, to none for the Paddleheads, but only one of the Missoula tallies was earned.

The Ballers evened the series the next night with a convincing, but not overwhelming, victory, seesawing through four and a half innings before breaking three with a five run

bottom of the fifth and then scamper home with a 13-8 triumph. Cobb got three hits, all singles, as did centerfielder T.J. McKenzie, whose three for three night included a round tripper and half a dozen RBI. I’ll have more to say about manager Aaron Miles’ use of McKenzie when we get to the challenges and solutions section of this column.

Switch hitting Jake Allgeyer was the remaining B’s batter to log a mult-hit performance. First baseman Jeter Ybarra had a bad night, going 0-5 at the plate and committing the Ballers’ only error. Liam Rocha, who relieved Aidan Risse in the fourth and surrendered two runs, one of them earned, on two hits, while walking another pair of batters, in his three innings on the mound, got the win.

Missoula mauled their hosts in the series finale on Thursday, the 21st almost as badly as they had in the opener. The PaddleHeads crossed the plate twice in first and were ahead, 8-0, by the time the Oaklanders managed their first tally, a sole run, in the bottom of the seven. The final score was 12-4. The visitors score their dozen runs with a baker’s dozen of hits and made three errors. Oakland their quartet of tallies on an octet hits while committing a duet of errors. Esai Santos drove in half of Oakland’s runs with a two homer with Cobb on base in the bottom of the ninth. Nick Bautista, who lasted only 2-2/3 innings, took the loss.

The worm began to turn for the West Oakland Wonders when the Long Beach Coast,

AKA Regulators, sporting their teal jerseys and pinstriped black pants, came to town on Friday, the 22nd. It took an anxiety ridden three hours and thirty-two minutes before McKenzie’s sacrifice fly to center brough Jake Allgeyer home with the tie breaking winning run in the bottom of the ninth, giving us a line score that looked like this:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Long Beach Coast	2	4	0	4	0	0	0	0	1	11	10	1
Oakland Ballers	0	3	0	0	1	4	1	0	3	12	9	1

Santos, Ybarra, and left fielder Damian Stone went yard, and Jaden Sheppard, the DH, Stone, right fielder Noah ‘Blythe lifted the fans’ spirits with a run batted in apiece, Santos drove in threeand Ybarra five. Santos, Ybarra, and McKenzie were the only Ballers to get more than one hit, with two each; Sheppard, Stone, and Nick Poss, Friday night’s catcher, accounted for the remainder. Braydon Nelson was credited with the win, in spite of giving up a leadoff four bagger that put Long Beach ahead 11-8 in the top of the ninth.

The Ballers’ half of the inning is worth telling in some detail. Right hander Zach Voelker left the bull pen to replace fellow righty Mason Bryant, who had pitched a scoreless eighth. Ybarra greeted him with an 0-1 fence clearer to right, That cut LB’s lead to 11-9. Collura. the B’s usual catcher, pinch hit for Sheppard and walk on a full count. Exit Voelker, enter Steven Odorica, another righty. He threw a wild pitch to Stone, both runners moving up 90 feet. Stone then walked on a 3-1 count, clogging the base paths. Blythe received another 3-2 passport, tying the score at 11.

We were all set for a repeat performance in Saturday’s mid-afternoon showdown. We got one, but with a painful variation. Take a look at the first eight innings of theline score, then look at the ninth and weep. The only detail I have to add—and it nearly breaks my heart to do so—is that Oakland was ahead, 12-11, with two down and two on in the top of the ninth. David Clarke had an 0-2 count pitching to Cooper Vest. The crowd stood up, ready to celebrate another nerve shattering victory. Then Vest cleared the left field fence with a blast that put his team ahead. There really was nothing left in the Ballers’ tank. It had been an exciting game until then, but not a well played one; AI had labeled my notes as “misplay x misplay.”

But the indominatable Ballers snapped back on Sunday, the 24th

It wasn’t pretty, but it was satisfying. Oakland jumped to a 2-0 lead in the initial frame but quickly fell behind 4-2 in the second. They knotted the score at four in their half of the inning and went ahead, 5-4 in the third. Long Beach knotted it up again in the top of the fourth but didn’t score again all afternoon. Gene Tanner held on through six to even his record at 1-1, and the Ballers took the series, two games to one to even their season mark at 3-3.Damian Stone broke the tie with a two run dinger over the left center field fence in the home fifth. McKenzie’s two bagger in the same episode brought Blythe home to give the B’s a lead they never relinquished. He went home with a BA of .391 and 10 RBI over the season’s half dozen games. One inning later, Alleger smacked a three run four bagger, and the game was as good as over. And when it was over, the B’s had won,11-5, and had evened their season’s mark at 3-3.

The Ballers ended the 2025 post season with the best won and lost record in the history of the history of the Pioneer Baseball League or its predecessor, the rookie level Pioneer League, a member of Minor League Baseball (MiLB), a subsidiary of the tolerated monopoly, Major League Baseball (MLAB). An MiLB team can retain a player as long as he wants to if the team’s parent club in the MLB doesn’t object. Under the byzantine eligibility rules of the PBL, it’s a whole new ball game. Here’s how the PBL’s website summarizes it:

The players on a Member Club’s Active Roster shall have completed no more than two (2) prior years of professional baseball experience (as defined below) as of January 1st in a season’s calendar year.

Any player who is within four (4) years of their high school graduation class year shall not have any professional service time count against their eligibility. Professional service time accrued during this initial four (4) year period is exempt and shall not be applied retroactively once the player passes the four-year mark. Only service time earned after the four (4) year anniversary of the player’s high school graduation class year shall be calculated toward the two-year limit of prior professional experience. For purposes of calculating prior seasons of professional baseball experience, after the four (4) year mark of their high school graduation class year, a year of professional experience is defined as follows:

POSITION PLAYERS – 30 games played STARTING PITCHERS – 7 games started PITCHERS – 18 games played

Professional experience includes previous play in all professional leagues, domestic or international, but does not include the MLB draft league, Arizona Complex League (ACL), Florida Complex League (FCL), the United Shore Professional Baseball League, the Mavericks Independent Baseball League, nor leagues in the Caribbean Federation, the Australian Baseball League or any other leagues that might become “winter ball” leagues. FRANCHISE PLAYERS

Clubs may designate one Franchise Position Player and one Franchise Pitcher per season, subject to the following requirements:

Player must have completed at least one (1) prior year in the PBL. A “year” is defined in accordance with the then applicable service time definitions of the PBL rules. If a Club loses a Franchise Player to injury or transfer to an MLB club, the Club may request permission from the League President to replace such player with another qualified Franchise Position Player or Franchise Pitcher. Such a request shall be made to the President in writing setting forth the circumstances involved. The President shall promptly decide, in his sole discretion, whether to approve or disapprove the request after considering the circumstances. ROSTER LIMITS

No member Club shall have more than 24 players on their Active Roster at any time, nor less than 22, except that a club may add a 25th player who (i) has been drafted at the conclusion of any PBL Tryout Camp, over whom the drafting team has exclusive signing rights from the draft until 21 days after opening day; or (ii) has registered and attended any PBL Tryout Camp occurring in a current league year, including: the previous season’s midseason and post-season drafts, and the current season’s pre-season and midseason draft.

This has made the Ballers’ goal of repeating their breath taking achievement of 2025 much more difficult than if they had been in an MLB affiliated league, as opposed to a not so distant partner league. Only seven players who were with the B’s in 2025 opened 2026 on the team’s roster. They include T.J. McKenzie, whom manager Aaron Miles has placed in the ninth spot in the batting order. This fairly unusual alignment makes a lot of sense. It’s reasonable to assume that at least eight batters will have made a plate appearance in the first three innings, especially in a league not noted for its pitching strength. This makes it highly likely that the number nine hitter will make his first plate appearance with at least one runner on base. In effect, the Ballers could have an extra cleanup batter.

Other goals for the B’s include breaking even financially. To do this, they have enhanced and expanded the stadium giveaway and promotion schedules. They’re too long to list here, but you can find them on http://www.oaklandballers.com.

The PBL itself is facing financial challenges. Economic uncertainty has cut into attendance, and inflation has made the cost of travel prohibitive. The league is dealing with this by realigning its divisions, adding new franchises and dropping old ones, and limiting interdivisional travel.

I, too, am facing challenges. Health and mobility problems prevent me from frequent coverage of Giants and Ballers home games. I have had to stop reporting on the Giants’ home games and will reduce my coverage of the Ballers to a weekly or semi-weekly column. I believe that a weekly column is the better option. What it sacrifices in freshness and detail, it recoups in addition context. It will be learning experience.

Oakland Ballers Report: Follow the bouncing Ballers

Published on May 26, 2026 by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

Oakland Ballers Cam Buford tunes up before a game at Raimondi Park in West Oakland (photo by Oakland Ballers X)

Monday, May 25, 2026

Oakland, CA

By Lewis Rubman

Both the league and the Ballers faced challenges before play began, but we’ll get to that after a brief review of the on-field action.

The Ballers evened the series the next night with a convincing, but not overwhelming, victory, seesawing through four and a half innings before breaking three with a five run

The worm began to turn for the West Oakland Wonders when the Long Beach Coast,

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Long Beach Coast	2	4	0	4	0	0	0	0	1	11	10	1
Oakland Ballers	0	3	0	0	1	4	1	0	3	12	9	1

Oakland Ballers game wrap: Ballers get trounced 13-1 by Giants at Excite Ballpark Tuesday

Published on April 1, 2026April 2, 2026 by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

Oakland Ballers vs. San Jose Giants Battle of the Bay exhibtion game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Tue Mar 31, 2026 (image from Oakland Ballers X)

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

By Lewis Rubman

Oakland Ballers 1 San José Giants 13

Attendance 2,800 (estimated)

SAN JOSE–It doesn’t take long for the Bay Area to establish a tradition. Last year’s Battle of the Bay 2.0 was such a success that it was inevitable that there’d be a repeat performance of the showdown between the San Francisco Giants’ Class A California League farm team and Your Oakland Ballers of the independent Pioneer Baseball League, classified as “partner” circuit with MLB. the successor to the big league franchise that deserted Oakland. San José defeated Oakland last year, 5-2, but the crew from Raimondi Field held their own. Tonight’s encounter was a different story. The B’s fell behind in the first inning and never recovered. The final score was a dismal 13-1

Both teams won their league’s championship in 2025, but the similarities end there.

The Giants had a month’s spring training under their belt. Tuesday night’s exhibition game was the first time the 2026 incarnation of the Ballers took the field together.

The game was played under this year’s MLB rules, which gave Oakland somewhat of a well needed boost because the most radical change in those rules this year has been their adoption of the Pioneer Baseball League’s challenge system. I don’t think anyone would argue that the East Bayers were a better team than their opponents, even though none of the little Giants is on the big team’s 40 player roster. Still, both squads were motivated by both pride and the need to prove themselves.

Dario Reynoso led San José’s attack with a perfect three for three at the plate. Two of his hits were doubles, and he was walked a couple of times, drove four runs across the plate, and stole a base in the bargain. Two other Giants had perfect offensive nights; Martin’s blast in the opening frame came in his only at bat, and Cam Maldonado went two for two, with a triple, a walk,and a stolen base.

None of Oakland’s hurlers last more than a frame on the mound.

The box score hasn’t been released at this writing.

San José retained the Tom Pellack Memorial Bridge Trophy, made from the steel used in the original Bay Bridge.There’s a certain irony in that.

The Ballers will have plenty of time to recover.The reigning Pioneer Baseball League champions will open the defense of their title at Raimondi Fieldon Tuesday evening, May 19 at 6:35.

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

Published on September 23, 2025September 23, 2025 by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

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

Published on September 16, 2025 by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

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

Published on September 9, 2025 by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

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

Published on September 2, 2025 by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

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

Published on August 7, 2025August 7, 2025 by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

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

Published on August 6, 2025August 6, 2025 by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

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