Tag: Grand Junction Jackalopes

Ballers run out of innings to catch Jakcalopes in 12-10 loss

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The Grand Junction Jackalopes and the Oakland Ballers did battle Sat May 31, 2025 at Raimondi Field in West Oakland (photo by the Oakland Ballers)

Grand Junction Jackalopes( 3-8) 100 215 201 12 14 5

Oakland Ballers (6-5) 011 010 070 10 11 5

Saturday, May 31, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The Ballers almost pulled off a comeback for the ages this pleasant evening in West Oakland scoring seven runs in the bottom of the eighth and fell two runs short losing to the Grand Junction Jackalopes 12-10.

Trailing the visiting woebegone Jackalopes 11-3 in the bottom of the eighth, the B’s staged a seven run rally, capped by Cam Bufford’s one out two run homer to right center field, to bring them with a single tally of a tie.

That blast, ironically, proved to be a rally killer. After Bufford sent the spheroid over the fence, Reese Miller relieved Cade Flaherty, stopped the home team in its tracks, and set them down in order in the ninth to earn his second save of the season.

The game was exciting but not well played; each team committed five errors. They went through a dozen pitchers; the Jacks used seven and the B’s five. Junction’s hurlers threw 177; Oakland’s, 163.

A quick glance at an abbreviated version of the visitors’ pitching numbers table might give a better sense of what happened than any narrative could. The Ballers’ numbers were similar, but there’s nothing to be gained by fatiguing you with evidence of how ineffectively the hurlers plyed their trade

Pitcher IP R ER H SO BB WP HP BLK HR Pitches

Tyler Curtis 4-1/3 3 2 6 3 0 0 2 1 0 86

Tai Atkins (W) 2/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5

Zach DeVito 1 0 0 o 1 0 0 0 0 0 20

Aydan Alger 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 17

Mark Schommer 1/3 4 4 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 21

Cade Flaherty, et al

The game began, like so many others, with the teams jockeying for position. The Jacks jumped out to an early one run lead, the B’s came back to lead 2-1 after three. Junction responded with a pair of runs in the fourth, and the two teams traded one run fifth. The breakout occured in the top of the sixth, on RBI singles by Zeb Roos and Kendall Foster and what looked like the coup de grace, a three run four bagger by Robin Fernández that gave the Jackalopes a seemingly definitive 9-3 lead. The Ballers scored seven runs in the

But, as the Cubans say, all we know about baseball is that it’s round and comes in a square box. The B’s went quietly in their half of the sixth, and the Coloradans tacked on another two tallies, neither of them earned, in an inning marked by two Oakand errors. The outlook sure wasn’t brilliant for the Oaktown Nine that day. The score stood 11-3 with but 2-1/2 innings left to play.

But the B’s bounced back. Esai Santos singled, driving in Pat Monteith and Danny Harris. It now was 11-5. There was a tiny bit of hope left among the Baller faithful. Davis Drewek doubled, sending Tremayne Cobb, i Santos, and Dillon Tatum across the plate to narrow the gap to 11-8. That little ray of hope grew larger. Cam Buffard was up next. His round tripper made it an 11-10 game.

And then the wind went out of Oakland’s sails. Buffard was the last Baller to reach base. Zeb Roos’s double, which plated Luis Hernández with Junction’s twelth run, felt like a mere formality.

Roos led the Jackalopes with four hits, followed by Foster with three, and a trio of batters—Fernández, Matt Piotrowski, and Evan Scavotto—each with two. Scavotto didn’t enter the fray until the sixth.

This six game series will conclude Sunday afternoon, with fireworks or duds or a combination of both commencing at 1:05. It sounds like a fine way to welcome in June.

Ballers late innings runs payoff in 9-6 win over Jackalopes

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The Oakland Ballers scored twice in the eighth and three times in the ninth to cash in late in the game to defeat the Grand Junction Jackalopes Sun Jun 1, 2025 at Raimondi Park in West Oakland (Oakland Ballers photo)

Grand Junction Jackalopes (3-9) 000 310 200 6 12 5

Oakland Ballers (7-5) 130 000 23x 9 12 0

Time: 2:29

Attendance: 2,367

Sunday, June 1, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–It’s been said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Last Sunday’s 9-6 Ballers triumph over the Jackalopes bore many resemblances to last evening’s 12-10 defeat at the hands of the visitors.

Both games featured an eighth inning, come from behind rally by the B’s. There was, of course, a noticeable difference; in the second of the two games, the sixth and final encounter of the series, the hometown team didn’t just turn a rout into a nail biter; it converted an impending loss into a well earned victory.

There was no fire visible from the stands today, but the scoreboard’s malfunctioning gave an encore performance. The Jackalopes once more committed five errors while the B’s defence, although not flawless, wasn’t charged with any errors.

For something new and completely different, second baseman Nick Leehey, fresh from his graduation from UC Davis, signed with the Ballers and made his professional debut. He fielded well but went 0-4 with three strikeouts, all swinging.

Each team used five pitchers. Right hander Zach St. Pierre started for Oakland and lasted four innings, during which he threw 66 pitches to 20 batters and yielded three runs, all of them earned, on seven hits and two walks while fanning two.

He was followed by Caleb Franzen (three runs, all earned), three hits and a walk, a pitch count of 34 in 2-1/3 innings; Connor Richardon made a cameo appearance of 2/3 of an inning and wasn’t charged with any runs, but the last two runs attributed to Franzen were one that Richardson had inherited from Franzen to score. Brody Eglite threw a 13 pitch perfect eighth to earn the win and now is 1-0). Connor Sullivan notched his mowed the Jackaloopes down, one, two, three in top of the ninth to earn his third save of 2025.

Oakland opened the scoring in a scrappy but not particularly confidence inspiring way. Tremayne Cobb, still struggling to regain his mojo at the plate—although I can’t think of a player who wouldn’t want to have his post game BA of .404—drew a leadoff walk.

The Jacks’ third baseman, Robin Fernández, committed an error that allowed the next batter, Pat Monteith, to take first while Cobb moved up 90 feet, into scoring position. A full count walk to Davis Drewek made the basepaths FOB (Full of B’s), to put new wine into the old bottle of Red Barber’s way of categorizing three on base Brooklyn Dodgers.

Cam Bufford hit into a 6-4-3 double play, plating Cobb, and the Ballers went ahead, 1-0, without recording a hit or run batted in.

They added another three runs to their lead in the next episode. Consecutive singles by Tyler Lozano, Daryll Bogs II, and Cobb clogged the basepaths. Monteith blooped a Texas League single to right that drove in Buggs and Lozano and advanced Cobb to third. Cobb came home when Drewek, the next B to come to the plate, singled to left.

In their half of the fourth, Grand Junction removed any complacency the Ballers and their fans might have begun to harbor. The Jackalopes cut their deficit by three runs on an RBI single by Isaac Núñez, a bases loaded walk to Luis Hernández, and a sacrifice fly to center by Zeb Roos in the next inning, they completely wiped out Oakland’s lead. Evan Scavotto doubled with two down and scored on Mason Minzey’s single to right against Caleb Franzen, who had relieved St. Pierre at the start of the frame.

Franzen kept the visitors off the board until the top of the seventh. With one away, he walked Kendall Foster, who reached third on a single to right by Robin Fernández. Exit Franzen, enter Conner Richardson. Scavotto singled to left, and Minzey’s doubled to the same field. Both runs were charged to Franzen. More important, Grand Junction now was ahead, 6-4.

Evan Massie had started for the Jacks and pitched decently. With his team’s resurgence, he stood to be the winning pitcher. He should have stood in bed. (Thank you, Dizzy Dean). Aydan Alger lasted 2/3 of an inning and coughed up the lead thanks to singles by Monteith and Drewek and a two out single by Dannie Harris IV that caused Alger to get the hook. Another single by Christian Almanza, this one off Tai Atkins, and Oakland was back on top, this time to stay.

A trio of Jackalopes hit for extra bases; Zeb Roos, Evan Scavotto, and Mason Minzey connected for a two bagger apiece. None of the Ballers had an extra base hit, but four of them had a multihit afternoon. Monteith, Drewek, and Buggs formed the trio each member of which contributed a pair of safeties; Harris went three for five and drove in three runs.

The win left Oakland tied with three other teams for fourth place in the overall Pioneer Baseball League standings. The team is scheduled to fly Monday morning at 8:00 o’clock to Portland. They’ll bus from there to Flathead County, MT, where they’ll take on the GlacierRange Riders, of the teams with whom they’re deadlocked for a six game series.

Next on the itinerary are three mid-week games against the Missoula Paddleheads. Then, it’s on to Ogden to battle the Raptors on Friday the 13th through Sunday the 16th. After a brief day of rest, they’ll return, as Al Jolson predicted, weary at heart, back where they started from, back in their own back yard to duke it out once more in a six game set-to with Grand Junction.

Ballers just get by Jackalopes 4-3

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photo image by Oakland Ballers

Grand Junction Jackalopes (2-8) 002 100 000 3 9 0

Oakland Ballers (6-4) 110 100 10x 4 5 0

Time: 2:53

Attendance: 1,628

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–It was an anomalous night this Friday at Ernie Raimondi Field. The thermometer read in the 70s, but a brisk wind led many of the 1,628 paying customers to layer up, only to take their extra layer off once the wind died down and then put it back on after sunset.

The sky was a brilliant blue that was smeared with the black smoke of a fire that burned behind the left side of the field, moving towards center, always, the PA announcer told us, at a safe distance from our West Oakland venue.

For the first half of the see-saw (or teeter totter if you’re a left coast native) contest, the scoreboard was a vast wasteland, devoid of information). The Ballers’ first run of their 4-3 squeaker victory over the tough luck Grand Junction Jackalopes crossed the plate in the person of a batter who had struck out.

It came on the feet of Tremayne Cobb, Jr., who was held hitless for only the second time this season. (The first occurred Wednesday). Grand Junction’s Johnnuelle Ponce, put the interlopers ahead 3-2 in the top of the fourth with a blast over the left center field fence that brought his BA up to .100. He was his team’s designated hitter. The visitors outhit their hosts by a working day, i.e. nine to five. My mother told me there’d be days like this….

Oakland’s unconventional first inning began with Cobb’s reaching first after striking out swinging at a wild pitch, reaching second on Lou Helmig’s groundout, stealing third, and trotting home on Christian Almanza’s single.

The B’s tacked on another talley in the second, again on their own fleet feet and the the poor control of Brock Gillis, the Jackalopes’ starter. Esai Santos, who’s been coming into his own recently, opened the frame with a walk, pilferred second, took third on a wild pitch, and then scored on another one.

Meanwhile, Reed Butz, opening night’s winning hurler for the Oaklanders, was breezing along. That breeze died down in the third. Zeb Roos smacked a one out double to right, Alex Pimental wrangled a walk, and Kendal Foster moved him up to second with a single to right center that brought Roos home with Grand Junction’s first run.

The two baserunners pulled off a double steal, which set the scene for catcher Mason Minzey’s sacrifice fly to left that allowed Pimental to waltz home with the tying run. Sic transit gloria mundi.

The team’s matched runs in the fourth, one a piece. Ponce’s round tripper to left center gave the Jackalopes a brief advantage. When Butz issued a free pass to Roos, the next batter he faced, his work for the evening was finished, leaving the B’s starter with a line of three runs, all of them earned, on five hits, including Ponce’s dinger, four walks, and couple of Ks. His truncated outing of 3-2/3 cost him 98 pitches and left him with a no decision.

In the home half of the frame, Cobb once more scored without benefit of a hit. He walked, and that ended Gillis’s unhappy mound tenure. He’d thrown 87 pitches and, after Tai Atkins, his replacement had allowed the runners he’d inherited to score, was charged three runs, all earned, in 3-2/3 innings. He struck out three B’s, a feat that couldn’t quite offset his three wild pitches.

Once Gillis had retired to the showers, Zach deVito, Ayan Alger, and Reese Miller took the mound for an inning each. Alger was the only one to allow a hit, two of them, in fact, and one of them was enough to score the winning run, Davis Drewek’s seventh inning home run over the left field fence. That made Alger the losing pitcher, and his balance sheet now stands at 0-1

Following Butz’s departure , a trio of Oakland relievers shut out the Jackalopes on four hits, one against each of Carson Lambert (2-1/3 IP), Connor Richardson (1-1/3), the eventual winning pitcher, and two off of Connor Sullivan, who earned his second save of the season.

Roos and Isaac Núñez had multi-hit games for Grand Junction, each with two. No Baller got more than one hit.

The weekend phase of this six game series begins Saturday at 4:35 and will conclude on Sunday, June 2. It’s been an exciting series, and the next two days promise more excitement. After that, the Ballers will leave on a two week road trip, returning to Ernie Raimondi Field on June 17.

Ballers get an edge on Jackalopes for 4-3 win Friday

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Oakland Ballers celebrate a one run win over the Grand Junction Jackalopes on Fri May 30, 2025 at Raimondi Park in West Oakland in Pioneer League action (Oakland Ballers X image)

Grand Junction Jackalopes (2-8) 002 100 000 3 9 0

Oakland Ballers (6-4) 110 100 10x 4 5 0

Time: 2:53

Attendance: 1,628

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–It was an anomalous night this Friday at Ernie Raimondi Field. The thermometer read in the 70s, but a brisk wind led many of the 1,628 paying customers to layer up, only to take their extra layer off once the wind died down and then put it back on after sunset.

The sky was a brilliant blue that was smeared with the black smoke of a fire that burned behind the left side of the field, moving towards center, always, the PA announcer told us, at a safe distance from our West Oakland venue.

For the first half of the see-saw (or teeter totter if you’re a left coast native) contest, the scoreboard was a vast wasteland, devoid of information). The Ballers’ first run of their 4-3 squeaker victory over the tough luck Grand Junction Jackalopes crossed the plate in the person of a batter who had struck out.

It came on the feet of Tremayne Cobb, Jr., who was held hitless for only the second time this season. (The first occurred Wednesday). Grand Junction’s Johnnuelle Ponce, put the interlopers ahead 3-2 in the top of the fourth with a blast over the left center field fence that brought his BA up to .100.

He was his team’s designated hitter. The visitors outhit their hosts by a working day, i.e. nine to five. My mother told me there’d be days like this….

Oakland’s unconventional first inning began with Cobb’s reaching first after striking out swinging at a wild pitch, reaching second on Lou Helmig’s groundout, stealing third, and trotting home on Christian Almanza’s single.

The B’s tacked on another tally in the second, again on their own fleet feet and the the poor control of Brock Gillis, the Jackalopes’ starter. Esai Santos, who’s been coming into his own recently, opened the frame with a walk, pilfered second, took third on a wild pitch, and then scored on another one.

Meanwhile, Reed Butz, opening night’s winning hurler for the Oaklanders, was breezing along. That breeze died down in the third. Zeb Roos smacked a one out double to right, Alex Pimental wrangled a walk, and Kendal Foster moved him up to second with a single to right center that brought Roos home with Grand Junction’s first run.

The two baserunners pulled off a double steal, which set the scene for catcher Mason Minzey’s sacrifice fly to left that allowed Pimental to waltz home with the tying run. Sic transit gloria mundi.

The team’s matched runs in the fourth, one a piece. Ponce’s round tripper to left center gave the Jackalopes a brief advantage,. When Butz issued a free pass to Roos, the next batter he faced, his work for the evening was finished, leaving the B’s starter with a line of three runs, all of them earned, on five hits, including Ponce’s dinger, four walks, and couple of Ks. His truncated outing of 3-2/3 cost him 98 pitches and left him with a no decision.

In the home half of the frame, Cobb once more scored without benefit of a hit. He walked, and that ended Gillis’s unhappy mound tenure. He’d thrown 87 pitches and, after Tai Atkins, his replacement had allowed the runners he’d inherited to score, was charged three runs, all earned, in 3-2/3 innings. He struck out three B’s, a feat that couldn’t quite offset his three wild pitches.

Once Gillis had retired to the showers, Zach deVito, Ayan Alger, and Reese Miller took the mound for an inning each. Alger was the only one to allow a hit, two of them, in fact, and one of them was enough to score the winning run, Davis Drewek’s seventh inning home run over the left field fence. That made Alger the losing pitcher, and his balance sheet now stands at 0-1

Following Butz’s departure , a trio of Oakland relievers shut out the Jackalopes on four hits, one against each of Carson Lambert (2-1/3 IP), Connor Richardson (1-1/3), the eventual winning pitcher, and two off of Connor Sullivan, who earned his second save of the season.

Roos and Isaac Núñez had multi-hit games for Grand Junction, each with two. No Baller got more than one hit.

The weekend phase of this six game series begins Saturday at 4:35 and will conclude on Sunday, June 2. It’s been an exciting series, and the next two days promise more excitement. After that, the Ballers will leave on a two week road trip, returning to Ernie Raimondi Field on June 17.

Ballers get quality start from Matsuoka in 9-1 win over Grand Junction

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Oakland Ballers pitcher Dylan Matsuoka was dealing pitching five innings of three hit, one run baseball against the Grand Junction Jackalopes at Raimondi Park in West Oakland on Thu May 29, 2025 (Oakland Ballers photo)

Grand Junction Jackalopes (2-7) 001 000 000 1 6 1

Oakland Ballers (5-4) 300 014 10x 9 14 0

Time: 2:44

Attendance:1,229

Thursday, May 29, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The Ballers’ romp through the 8-1/2 innings of this Thursday evening’s 9-1 resounding victory over the Grand Junction Jackalopes began as if the visitors were picking up where they had left off on Wednesday, when they dominated their hosts, 5-0.

While the air still was warm and the sun brilliant,, the ‘lopes loaded the bases with one out, only to return to the dugout two batters later with nothing more than a goose egg in the run column to show for it. The B’s came up in their half of the first and returned with a two spot on the board, and they were off and running over the .500 line, leaving Grand Junction in the dust behind them and ending the day at 5-4 .

Tremayne Cobb, Jr., who had seen his eight game hitting streak end on Wednesday, re-established himself as a two threat by going three for four, which brought his batting average up to .439, and showing off some pretty flashy glove work along with getting off a few strong and accurate throws.

Cobb’s partner on the left side of the infield, Davis Drewek, also had a multi-hit evening, going two for four. Those two hits were a fifth inning homer to right center and a sixth inning, two RBI double. All told, the B’s third baseman drove in three tallies. Christian Almanza and Daniel Harris IV also cleared the fences. Lou Helmig and Cam Buffard joined Drewek, Almanza, and Harris as run producers.

The win went to the Ballers’ starter, Dylan Matsuoka, who now is 2-0, 1.80. He allowed the only Jackalope run, which was earned, surrendering three hits and a walk against seven strikeouts and a wild pitch. His pitch count was 89, and he faced 28 batters.

Caleb Franzen relieved him for the sixth and allowed nothing more than a lead off single. Alec Rodríguez gave up a hit another else over the seventh and eighth episodes, and James Colyer closed out the rout with two strikeouts, a couple of walks, and then a a backward K that sent the dwindling crowd (if that noun can be used to describe what was left of the 1,229 paying customers) happy.

The loss was charged to Grand Canyon’s starter, Riley Egloff, whose record dropped from 0-0, 3,00 to 0-1, 5.23, The four runs he allowed in his 4-1/3 inning long stint were earned and came on nine hits, two of the yard, two walks and a wild pitch.

Ethan Brown also gave up four runs, all of them earned. He managed to do this on 34 pitches over 1-1/3 frames. This was after Tai Atkins, Egloff’s replacement had retired the two B’s he faced. Ethan Brown (four runs, all earned, on three hits in 2-1/3 innings) and Cade Flaherty, who gave up Harris’s round tripper in the bottom of the eighth, completed the list of sacrificial lambs that Grand Junction sacrificed on the altar of the pitching rubber).

Which way will the pendulum swing Friday the 30th? We’ll know after the game, scheduled for a 6:35 start, is over.

Jackalopes Zaborowski allows one hit in 5-0 shutout of Ballers Wednesday

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Oakland Ballers catcher Tyler Lazano (left) and pitcher Luke Short (right) exchange pleasantries at Raimondi Field as they took on the Grand Junction Jackalopes on Wed May 28, 2025 (Oakland Ballers photo)

Grand Junction Jackalopes (2-6) 200 0200 100 5 8 0]

Oakland Ballers (4-4) 000 000 000 0 3 3

Time: 2:21

Attendance: 1,358

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–What a difference a week makes! After his first start of 2025, the Jackalope’s 22 year old righthander Zach Zaborowski’s numbers were 0-1, 4.76 with a WHIP of 1.41. After he got through frustrating the Ballers in Wednesday night’s contest at Ernie Raimondi Park in a 5-0 shutout, those figures stood at 1-1, 2.13 and 0.87.

Ah, well, Wednesday’s child is full of woe, and the 23 year old from Westfield, IN gave his hosts seven innings of one hit woe before yielding the mound to Aydan Alger, allowed them two hits in the remaining two frames but preserved the shutout, the first the Oakanders have suffered so far this season.

The Jackalopes jumped to an early lead and never looked back. Luke Short, Oakland’s southpaw starter, walked Jeb Roos, the first batter he faced. Center fielder Alex Pimentel followed him in the batting order and cleared the basepaths as both trotted around the diamond on Pimentel’s fence clearing blast to right.

Short held the Jackalopes in check for a while but weakened in the top of the fifth. With the bases loaded and two away, manager Aaron Miles decided that Short had hung around long enough; the bases were loaded with two down.

The skipper called on portsider Brody Eglite to put out the fire. It didn’t work out as he had planned. Evan Scavoto singled to right and continued on to second on Lou Helmig’s error. Kendall Foster, one of the two men on board advanced to third, and the other two, crossed the plate, doubling Grand Junction’s lead to 4-0. One of those runs was unearned, coming on an error by B’s backstop, Tyler Lozano. Both of the runs were charged to Short.

It was all over but the shouting. One of the casualties of defeat, which dropped the Baller’s back down to the .500 mark, Tremayne Cobb’s seven game hitting streak. For all the disappointment the Baller backers suffered, it was the best pitched game played in Raimondi Park in recent memory.

The six game series will continue Thursday, and Friday at 6:35, followed by a 4:35 start on Saturday and the final encounter on Sunday at 1:05.