Tag: Pioneer League

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),

Ballers continue to roll shutout Vibes 9-0

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The Pioneer League first half champions Oakland Ballers continue to roll with a win over the Rocky Mountain Vibes 9-0 on Fri Jul 11, 2025 (Oakland Ballers x photo)

Rocky Mountain Vibes (22-23) 000 000 000 0 5 1

Oakland Ballers (35-11) 015 020 10x 9 12 3

Time: 2:47

Attendance:2,872

Friday, July 11, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Who says a baseball game has to be close, or even significant, to be interesting? Certainly not the first half champion Oakland Ballers and the Rocky Mountain Vibes, the team they defeated on Thursday the 10th to clinch the championship and who fell to the champs this Friday the 11th by the overwhelming score of 9-0 in an anti-climactic game that featured, as the result indicates, excellent offense and defence by the home team and a series of of out of the ordinary events that kept the crowd of 2,872 entertained but by no means on edge of their seats.

Here’s a partial list of those happenings: Cam Bufford, usually a DH or third baseman, played first base for the entire nine innings. Six different players occupied the seventh slot in the batting order; five of them were pitchers, and three of them actually threw at least one pitch in anger.

The two more were pinch hitters, and one, Zach St. Pierre (who else?) was a pinch runner. Lou Helmig, whose sixth inning opposite field single drove in the tie breaking run in Thursday’s tense victory, drove in three runs in tonight’s laugher, two of them on a fifth inning round tripper.

The B’s scored their first run in the second frame. Their first hit came in the third, a two out homer by Bufford that ignited a five run outburst that sealed the Vibes’ doom The visitors showed some slight signs of life in their last turns at the plate.

Ryan Pierce, making a rare start at the hot corner for Oakland, committed three errors in the game. Two of them enabled Rocky Mountain’s first two ninth inning batters to reach base. This didn’t faze Adam Bogasian, one of the half dozen seventh slotters, who promptly fanned Will Butcher, and got Stephen Wilmer, the ex-Baller who had homered the night before, to hit into a 1-3 DP.

Bogasian seemed to pick the ball that had been shot to him right out of his hip pocket Noah Millikan earned the win with six innings of four hit shutout ball.

That’s the Pioneer League equivalent of a complete game. Calem Franzin, along with Bogasian one of the pair of seventh slotters who didn’t make a plate appearance, gave up one hit and struck out four in his two innings. Bogasian mopped up the mess in the top of the ninth.

Nick Leehey, giving Tremayne Cobb a day off from playing short, and Esai Santos, filling in for second sacker Danny Harris, were the only Baller starters to go hitless. Helmig led the team in hits, with three. Tyler Losano had gone one for one when what could have been a damaged hamstring pulled him out of action and precipitated the overcrowding of the seventh spot in the order.

The fun and games will resume Saturday, afternoon at 4:35, followed by the last game of the first half of the season on Sunday the 13th at 1:35.

Ballers 5 run eighth inning rally sinks Riders 10-6 at Raimondi Park

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Oakland Ballers James Colver started and picked up his second win of the season against the Glacier Range Riders at Raimondi Park on Sat Jun 21, 2025 (Oakland Ballers photo)

Glacier Range Riders (11-18) 000 213 000 6 17 3

Oakland Ballers (20-9) 101 030 05x 10 12 3

Time: 2:36

Attendance: 3,250

Saturday, June 21, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Exciting, but not always well-played, games are getting to be a habit at Ernie Raimondi Park. This sunny and, for the most part, warm Saturday afternoon, the home team rode a roller coaster in their match against their guests from Montana, over whom they prevailed by a score of 10-6 score for the straight time in as many days.

The competing teams managed to commit a half a dozen errors, and that includes only those that were officially scored as such; no mental mistakes, misplayed balls, incompleted double plays, or he should have gotten it among them.

The Ballers won, 10-6, the same score by which they had won last night, but today they needed a five run rally in the eighth to pull it off. Each team made 12 hits, connected for two doubles and two home runs, and was charged with three errors. Talk about evenly matched!

The B’s used five pitchers. The first of them, Noah Miliken, was the beneficiary of that recent rarity, an early Ballers lead. After Miliken had set the Range Riders down in order in the opening frame, Oakland’s lead off hitter, Esai Santos, smacked Jared Engman’s 0-1 offering over the right field fence for the first of the two runs his team would register against the Riders’ right handed starter in his three innings of work. The second tally came in the third on Nick Leehey’s single to center, a wild pitch, and a single to right by Davis Drewek.

Glacier pulled even in the fourth on Kingston Levari’s leadoff double to left center, Jack Lynch’s RBI single, and an error by second sacker Daniel Harris IV. They went ahead, 3-2. in their next turn at bat on TJ Clarkson’s solo round tripper to center.

The Range Rider’s right fielder had homered twice in last night’s thriller. When Logan Beard followed tonight’s shot with a double, Adam Bogosian followed Millikan to the mound and finished the frame by getting Xavier Casserill to ground into a 6-4-3 twin killing.

The pendulum swung in Oakland’s favor in the bottom of the fifth. Christian Almanza’s 417′ blast to straightaway center field with Buggs, who had walked, and Drewek, who had singled, on base, obliterated the Riders’ brief advantage.

But leads are made to be lost, especially in the Pioneer League, and Oakland’s newfound 5-3 advantage was transformed into a 6-5 deficit. Kenneth Levari opened the top of the sixth with a bunt single to third and trotted home in front of Kingston Liniak, whose drive to left was caught … in the netting above the fence.. Jack Lynch doubled to right, and that brought Conner Richardson in to relieve Bogosian.

Gabe Howell singled to left, Lynch advanced to third and held on. He came home on Efraín Manzo’s grounder to short that forced Howell out a second. Clarkson’s single to left moved Manzo up 90 feet. An error by Leehay at the hot corner loaded the bases, but Xavier Casserill popped out to right to staunch the bleeding.

Glacier was riding high, hanging on to their slim margin when Oakland came to bat in the bottom of the eighth. Nick Zegna replaced Luke Cooper, the only one of the four pitchers theRange Riders used to try to contain Oakland’s potent offence not to have given up a run, holding them to a couple of hits and a base on balls in the sixth and seventh.

An error by Beard at second put Tyler Lozano on first. Ryan Pierce, making his professional debut, pinch hit for James Colyor, who had been pitching for the B’s and was scheduled to bat because of some fancy manipulation of the Pioneer League’s substitution rules by manager Aaron Miles.

He smacked a double to left that tied the score. Two walks, intentional, another pair of RBI on a single by the irrepressible Almanza plus an error by Liniak in center and another on Manzo at third equal five runs on two hits and three errors with one runner left on base for the inning and 10-6 lead for the Ballers.

Connor Sullivan pitched the top of the ninth and struck out all three Range Runners he faced.

Four Ballers had multi hit games: Drewek, Harris, Almanza, and Lozano, with two each. Lozano and Pierce doubled. Santos and Almanza, who drove in five runs, homered. The other B’s with RBI were Santos, Drewek, and Pierce at one each. Levari logged three hits in five at bats for Glacier. Four of his teammates two hits a piece: Clarkson, Liniak, Lynch, and Howell.

The two teams will end their six game series, starting at 1:05 Sunday morning. Glacier (11-18) will send Ty Bothwell (0-1). to the mound. Oakland (20-9) will counter with Luke Short (2-1).

The Ballers then will leave town for an extended road trip and won’t play at home until 6:35 in the evening of Tuesday, July 8th, when they’ll face the Rocky Mountain Vibes on Bruce Lee night.

Oakland Ballers game wrap: Ballers five run fifth puts away Riders in 10-6 win

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Oakland Ballers pitcher Brody Eglite picked up his second win of the season against the Glacier Range Riders at Rickey Henderson Field in Oakland on Fri June 20, 2025 (Oakland Ballers photo)

Glacier (11-17) 200 003 100 6 7 4

Oakland (19-9) 104 050 00x 10 8 0

Time: 2:43

Attendance: 2,005

Friday, June 20, 2925

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–In spite of their Mid-Summer Night cum Juneteenth’s 5-2 loss on Thursday to the visitors from the Glacier National Park, your Oakland Ballers entered Friday evening’s version of the Friday Night Fights at 18-9, with only one game standing between them and the league leading Missoula Paddle Heads.

Appropriately enough, public transit was the theme for the meeting, and the visitors’ moniker is Range Riders. When the post game dust had settled, the Ballers had ridden over the Riders, 10-6, in a game that featured abrupt and extreme changes of fortune and an act of exemplary stoicism. After all the Pioneer Baseball League action had ended, the Ballers, at 19-9, were the sole occupants of first place in the entire circuit.

As is their wont, the B’s quickly found themselves looking up at their adversaries; Brody Eglite went to a full count to Glacier’s leadoff hitter, TJ Clarkson, who entered the fray batting .409 before driving the ball over the right center field fence.

The Oakland righty then went to a full count on Logan Beard (BA .452) before walking him. Before you could say “line out to third” and “bunt single,” Kingston Liniak smacked the pitch to deep right center, where center fielder Darryl Bugs II caught it for the inning’s second out, and Beard scored on the sac fly to put the Range Riders up, 2-0.

The Ballers cut Glacier’s advantage in half with Davis Drewek’s two out four bagger in the bottom of the inning and went ahead in the fifth by the seemingly insurmountable margin of 10-2. Darryl Buggs II opened hostilities with a leadoff single to right.

Tremayne Cobb, Jr., who did some nifty defensive work at short, sent him to third with a single to left. DH Esai Santos fanned. Drewek’s single and an error by Glacier’s first sacker brought in Buggs and gave the B’s two runners in scoring position with one down.

It also took the Range Riders starter. Rayne Supple out of the game. He would be charged with the loss after having thrown 92 pitches in his 4-1/3 inning stint. Nine runs would be charged to him, but only (!) four would be earned.

His successor, Jacob Hasty, would close out the frame on ten pitches and be charged with one, unearned run before giving way to Noah Cole (1-1/3 perfect innings), and Cam Cowan (1-2/3 shutout innings of one hit, two walk baseball).

Christian Almanza’s single to right plated Cobb and Drewek. Harris was next to cross the plate, on a ground out by Lou Hemig, and Almanza came in on a wild pitch by Hasty.

You’d think that the Ballers had nothing to worry about after this outburst, but you’d be forgetting one of the Pioneer League’s primary precepts, no lead is safe, and not just at high altitudes. Yogi Berra is said to have said it best, “It ain’t over ….” You know the rest of it.

In the bottom of the sixth, a foul ball off Almanza’s bat bounced up into Glacier catcher Angel Mendoza’s crotch, causing him extreme pain that kept him on his hands and knees, fighting for breath for several minutes. When he finally was able to stand upright, he received loud applause from the crowd, which immediately afterwards was stunned by the backstop’s decision to remain in the game.

To make a long story somewhat shorter, the visitors answered their hosts’ five run fifth with a three run seventh, ending speculation that Eglite might go 100 pitches. He ended up throwing 91 of them and getting the win, his second in two decisions.

Four of the five runs he allowed were earned. He gave up five hits, including Clarkson’s homer in the first,and the one Jack Lynch hit in Glacier’s comeback rally in the sixth. Eglite also struck out five of the 22 batters he faced and walked two of them.

Saturday, Rickey Henderson Field will replace Ernie Raimondi Park. It will be Rickey Henderson Day. Starting at 4:35, we’ll see if Rickey can give the Range Riders a run for their money.

Oakland Ballers report: Ballers Butz and Sullivan keep Riders off balance in 6-5 win

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Oakland Ballers pitching held off the Glacier Range Riders on Wed June 18, 2025 at Raimondi Park in Oakland in Pioneer League action (Oakland Ballers photo)

Glacier Range Riders (10-16) 100 001 300 5 8 0

Oakland Ballers (18-8) 303 000 00x 6 12 3

Time:2:35

Attendance: 1,872

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–In a marked contrast to Wednesday night’s thrilling come from behind win over the Glacier Range Riders, the Ballers put up a half dozen runs in the first three frames and then held on to their 3-1 lead as it dwindled to 6-5 in the seventh to hang on and record their fifth straight victory.

It was Baseball for All Night, with an emphasis on women in baseball, and the umpire for the right side of the diamond was Kate Hart, who did such a good job that she passed virtually unnoticed. This evening’s contest began, like its predecessor on Tuesday, with the Riders taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, only now the Ballers roared back with three on back to back singles by Tramayne Cobb, Jr., and Esai Santos, followed by double by Davis Drewek that drove in both of them.

Cam Bufford’s fly to right allowed Drewek to advance to third, and he scored on Christian Almanza’s ground out to second. The B’s added another three tallies in their half of the third. Bufford opened it with a single to center and motored on to third on Almanza’s safety to right.

Danny Harris IV’s single to left plated Drewek and allowed Almanza to move up another 90 feet. With Lou Helmig at bat, a wild pitch enabled both runners to advance another base, and the Baller’s now led, 4-1. Helmig’s two bagger to right that made it 6-1.

Reed Butz, Oakland’s starting southpaw began to waver in the top of the sixth, just about the time the temperature began to drop. Gabe Howell, the second batter he faced, went yard on him to left, and that was it for Butz.

The eventual winning pitcher had needed 107 pitches to complete his 5-1/3 innings of work, during which he had surrendered two runs, one earned, on five hits, including Howell’s homer that drove him from the box. He struck out seven and walked two. Connor Richardson replaced him and hurled another 1-2 /3 innings.

The Range Riders’ resurgence in the top of the seventh suggested the possibility of a repetition in reverse of Oakland’s Tuesday comeback. Kyle Ashworth, leading off, set the stage by reaching first on an error by Harris. One out later, TJ Clarkson doubled to right.

Now it was 6-3. Another out later and another double, this one by Xavier Casserilla, and it was 6-4. Next up was Kingston Liniak. He managed a single to short, allowing Casserilla to make it to third. Seconds later, Cobb’s errant throw resulted in Liniak hugging third and Casserilla crossing the plate with Glacier’s fifth run.

Carson Lambert was on the bump for the B’s to pitch the eighth, and he provided a sigh of relief by escaping unscathed after throwing 17 pitches, one of which hit Angel Mendoza ,which brought forth cries of “He didn’t get out of the way” and so on from the crowd. Lambert also fanned a couple of Riders in the frame.

Connor Sullivan wrapped it up for the Ballers, needing only 12 pitches to strike out a pair of opponents on his way to earning his seventh save of the season. That’s the most in the league.

The visitors used four pitchers.. All of the runs the B’s were scored against Glacier’s starter, starboard hurler Grant Taylor, who took the loss, which dropped his record to 1-4. Eldridge Armstrong II (two innings), Jacob Hasty, and Luke Cooper (an inning each) followed him.

Drewek and Helmig got the hosts’ only two extra bases hits, with a double apiece. Helmig, with three, and Almanza and Buggs, with two each, were the only B’s to have multi-hit games. The Range Riders accomplished a rarity for a Pioneer League team; they didn’t make any errors.

The Ballers made three, but it was their defense that sent the fans home satisfied. Casserilla seemed assured of a Texas League single or more when his pop up to short center, almost invisible in the poorly illuminated Bermuda Triangle in the area behind second base, befuddled almost the entire concurrence at Raimondi Field. But Baller left fielder Davis Drewek was on the ball. And then he was under it, making a sliding catch to put an end to another night of anxiety and excitement.

The next encounter of this seven game series will be a celebration of Juneteenth and scheduled to start at 6:35 Thursday evening.