Tag: Pioneer League

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.

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 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 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.

Oakland Ballers game recap: Colorado cuts it close with 5-4 win over Oakland

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Colorado Springs Sky Sox (2nd half:4-3, season:13-41) 010 210 100 5 11 2

Oakland Ballers (2nd half:5-2,season : 42-23) 000 210 002 4 3 2

Will the real Daniel Harris please stand up? Daniel Harris the trumpet player of the national anthem met Oakland Ballers second baseman Daniel Harris before Tue Jul 23, 2025 game at Raimondi Field against the Colorado Springs Sky Sox (photo by the Oakland Ballers)

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–You come away from a game like the Ballers’ slovenly trouncing of the faltering peripatetic squad from northern Colorado on Tuesday night, exalted by the thrill of victory but feeling a trifle dirty because what you’d attended wasn’t a drama but a farce. (I admit that there’s a lot to be said for farces, but why quibble?)

You return to Raimondi Park this pleasant Wednesday evening prepared for more low comedy and, of course, a happy ending, and, to your surprise, Colorado springs back and defeats the hometown crew, 5-4, in a nailbiter that ends with the potential tying and winning runs on the corners and what looks like a wrongly called third strike after your team has exhausted its challenges.

As the Cuban saying has it, lo único que sabemos de la pelota es que es redonda y viene en caja cuadrada, all we know about baseballs is that they’re round and come in a square box.

How are we to explain this sudden change of outrageous fortune? A good deal of credit goes to Chase Martínez, the Sky Sox’ starting and winning pitcher. He hung on for six innings, in which he threw 112 pitches and gave up only two hits.

This accomplishment was tarnished by one of them having been a two run dinger by Darryl Buggs in the fourth, which accounted for half of the Ballers’ total run production of four, three of which, all earned, were charged to Martínez. Nowadays, this is considered a quality start at all levels of play. In the context of the Pioneer Baseball League, this is the stuff of Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn at Candlestick Park.

Three Sky Sox relievers, Joe Kinsky, Ryan Velázquez, and Alaín López, who got the save (his third) held Oakland to one run (an unearned tally against Lopez) and one hit (an eighth inning double by Jake Allgeyer off of Veláquez).

Casey Stengel, whose managerial talents led the 1948 Oakland Oaks to thePacific Coast League pennant, observed, “Good pitching always beats good hitting and vice versa,” and the Sky Sox did some pretty good hitting Tuesday night.

Seven of their nine batters got hits, and the two that didn’t walked three times between them. One of them, ex-Baller Marques Titialii got free passage to first twice in four plate appearances. Christian Hall went three for five and almost duplicated his namesake and fellow first sacker Christian Almanza’s Tuesday night feat of hitting three homers. Two of his three hits went yard.

In contrast, the only Oakand hit I haven’t already mentioned was Tremayne Cobb’s leadoff two bagger in the first frame. The Curse of the Leadoff Double refuses to die.

Reed Butz started for the Ballers and took the loss, his second against seven wins. He surrendered four runs, three of them earned, in 4-1/3 innings on the mound, during which he threw 86 pitches. Two of the seven hits he allowed were homers, and he logged four strikeouts against three walks.

Adam Bogosian followed Butts and kept Colorado Springs off the board for 1-2/3 innings,allowing just one hit. Gabe Tanner pitched the seventh and eighth. He gave up the deciding run in the first of those two frames. It came on Hall’s second tatter of the game. James Colyer kept Oakland’s hopes alive by shutting down the Sox on one hit while striking out two in the top of the ninth.

The line score provides a guide to the game’s scoring sequences and the B’s attempts to make do with a stymied offense.

Be prepared for more interesting turns of events starting Thursday, evening at 6:35. The first 500 fans will receive a limited edition En Vogue commemorative cup.

Oakland Ballers post game wrap: Almanza’s three homers makes big difference in 12-8 win for Ballers

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Christian Almanza gets a lift from his teammates. Almanza had a three homer day against the Northern Colorado Springs Sky Sox at Raimondi Park in West Oakland on Tue Jul 22, 2025 (Oakland Ballers photo)

Colorado Springs Sky Sox (2nd half: 4-3, ’25: 13-41) 030 020 120 8 9 2

Oakland (2nd half: 5-2, ’25: 42-13) 450 300 00x 12 11 0

Time: 2:58

Attendance: 2,298

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–A mere 91 years ago, New York Giants’ manager Bill Terry fell to thinking about the forthcoming National League season. His mused, “Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Chicago will be the teams we’ll have to beat. I don’t think the Braves will do as well as they did last year. I was just wondering, is Brooklyn still in the league?”

Mutatis Mutandi, a fan of today might wonder what the Northern Colorado Springs Sky Sox were doing at Raimondi Park, where they faced the Pioneer League’s first half champion Oakland Ballers, in the B’s second half home opener.

Didn’t the Sky Sox compete in the Triple A Pacific Coast League? Yes, they did, but that was only a three decade long blink of the eye of history, starting in 1988, when the Hawaii Islanders migrated to the Springs, and lasting through 2918, when they moved on to San Antonio replacing the Double A Missions and bringing Triple A baseball to the Alamo City .

In a nasty irony of baseball history, the current version of the San Antonio Missions is back in Double A as an affiliate of the San Diego Padres.

The home of the Air Force Academy and the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center did and still does host a Pioneer League team, the Rocky Mountain Vibes, but when the circuit’s Northern Colorado Owiz closed shop in the last week of this season’s first have, the league took over the team’s operation, moved it to Colorado Springs and rebranded it the Sky Sox.

Only the name was changed; we saw the Northern Colorado Owlz (now the Sky Sox) in all but name fall to the Ballers, 12-8 this Tuesday night in a game in which the B’s led 12-4 after four frames and had to scramble to escape the top of the eighth without having blown their lead.

That commodious vicus of recirculation brings us back to Raimondi Park and Environs, where the temperature at game time was in the low 60s and dropping fast. In a way that mirrored the contradictions in the event itself.

The cold was not uncomfortable, Back in Colorado Springs, it was pretty warm, but not comfortable; it was raining. For my part, I still vividly recall having seen mounds of dirty frozen snow piled in front of the outfield fences at an afternoon home game of the PCL Sky Sox in July of, I think it was, 1989. And I remember how scared I was driving south after the game through a blinding hailstorm down I-25 to Las Vegas, New Mexico. Those images coexisted with what I was experiencing Tuesday night in West Oakland.

It was an interesting game but not a well played one.The Sky Sox set the tone in the bottom of the first when centerfielder Brett Robert turned this way and thataway when chasing afterDavis Drewek’s deep fly ball. He never touched the ball, so Drewek was credited with a triple and an RBI when Esai Santos crossed the plate. Because Kamau Neighbors’ relay ended up in the Sox’s dugout, Drewek romped home with the hosts’ second run.

The pitching on both sides was, for the most part, to put it kindly, inelegant. Colorado Springs’ two relievers, Maykol Lopez Esperanza and Danny Fox held Oakland to one hit and a walk over 2-2/3 innings after their starter, Austyn Coleman, had thrown a 112 pitches in his 5-1/3 innings of work that yielded a dozen runs, all earned, on 10 hits, five of which cleared the fence, and a pair of free passes.

The Ballers sent young Dylan Delvecchio, a product of St. Mary’s, to the mound to make his professional debut. He desperately wanted to stay in for the five innings required for a starting pitcher to earn a win. Two solo home runs, a fly out to the left center field wall, and a couple of walks frustrated that desire.

Delvecchio showed promise but clearly needs more experience before he can stop being a hope and become an asset. Dylan Matsuoka got the win, improving his balance sheet to 4-1 in spite of having surrendered a run, earned, two hits, one of them on Zane Denton’s second round tripper of the night, three walks, and a wild pitch.

This, after pitching to but nine batters. It took the struggling righty 34 pitches to get through his 1-1/3 cameo appearance. Conner Richardson didn’t fare any better. Chewy gave up one more hit and got one more out than his predecessor before yielding to Caleb Franzen, who was the one bright spot in the B’s mound corps as he put down the four batters he faced and set the crowd of 2,298 home happy.

Christian Almanza led the Ballers’ attack, going three for three. All of his hits went yard, and accounted for half of Oakland’s talleys. Three other B’s had multi hit nights. Tremayne Cobb, Drewek, and Danny Harris each had two. Drewek hit, in addition to the aforementioned gift three bagger, a four bagger of his own, and Santos also went yard.

The second of this six game series is scheduled to start at 6:35 Wednesday evening. It’ll be another Ballers’ Winning Wednesday with giveaway posters from Cape and Cowl Comics and AC Transit and a raffle for a hand built e-Bike from the Electric Bike Company. The first 500 customers will get a free lift ticket from Dodge Ridge and Bear Valley.

Oakland Ballers game wrap: Ballers take control of Vibes in 9-3 win at Raimondi

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The Oakland Ballers

Rocky Mountain Vibes (22-24) 000 000 300 3 5 1

Oakland Ballers (36-11) 120 040 02x 9 13 1

Time: 2:50

Attendance: 2,703

Saturday, July 12, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–This clear and breezy afternoon at Raimondi Park was the scene of a repeat performance of Friday’s 9-0 shellacking of the visiting Rocky Mountain Vibes by your Oakland Ballers. The Vibes hail from Colorado Springs, from which you can see Pikes Peak, and the Ballers certainly busted the Vibes on both occasions. Saturday’s Baller win was by an ample 6-3 margin.

Once again, the B’s starting pitcher—Saturday he was Luke short— held his opponents scoreless over six innings of play. He made short work of them, allowing but two hits and a pair of walks, and uncorking a wild pitch, all on a total of 54 pitches. He earned his sixth win of the season against one loss.

Oakland’s bullpen wasn’t as effective in Saturday’s sunlight as it had been under Friday night’s artificial illumination. Conner Richardson, Short’s successor, coughed up the Vibes’ three runs four batters after taking over mound duties in the top of the seventh.

Ex-Baller Stephen Wilmer and Will Butcher hit back to back singles. Aleck Davis fanned and then catcher Otto Jones sent Richardson’s 0-2 delivery over the left field fence for his first professional home run. The game no longer was as one sided as its predecessor. Richardson set down his next two mountaineers to end the inning. Carson Lambert and Connor Sullivan pitched a shutout frame apiece, and that was it for the Vibes.

There were no sustained anomalies comparable with Friday’s six players in the seventh slot phenomenon, but the game’s final out was a doozie. Sully issued a one out walk to Adams to bring Jones to the plate. He lifted a popup to second for the out number two. But Adams, who most likely had forgotten that there had been only one down, hadn’t reversed his advance towards second, and Harris tagged him for an easy no brainer game ending unassisted double play.

Although Lou Helmig went hitless in four at bats, the B’s continued to have a potent offense. Indeed, Helmig was the only starter not to get at least a single. Davis Drewek, back from the injured list, went two for four with a walk and an RBI. Christian Almanza, Dillon Tatum, Nick Leehey, and Esai Santos each contributed a double. Leehey drove in three runs; Dillon Tatum, two, and Cobb, Drewek, and Ryan Pierce, one apiece.

The only unscored upon Rocky Mountain pitcher was Thomas Peltier, who surrendered a double in the seventh, the only inning he worked.

The teams will close out the first half Sunday. Game time is 1:05. I won’t be covering that contest, so why don’t you drop by at 18th and Wood. You’ll probable enjoy the vibes (note the lower case, although the ones with a capital V provide some pretty entertaining counterpoint to your Oakland Ballers),