Tag: Yolo High Wheelers

Wheelers deal Ballers season ending loss 6-4 in game 3 of Pioneer Playoffs

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The Oakland Ballers make their way back to the clubhouse following their game 3 playoff game against the Yolo High Wheelers at Raimondi Field in West Oakland on Fri Sep13, 2024 (Oakland Ballers X photo)

Yolo (2-1) 201 100 200 6 10 2

Oakland (1-2) 001 020 100 4 5 2

Time: 2:47

Attendance: 2,662

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The Oakland Ballers’ successful inaugural season came to a depressing close this Friday the 13th when the Yolo High Wheelers, who have the same principal owners as the Oakland nine and also are newcomers to the Pioneer Baseball League, played Cain to the the Ballers’ Able.

The raucous crowd of 2,662, about 65% of Raimondi Park’s capacity, made enough noise that you’d have thought their favorites had fared better than they did. The decibel level of the West Oakland revelers exceeded that made in the East Oakland venue where the other (for now) Oakland ball club used to drive George Steinbrenner crazy. Nonetheless, Oakland fell to what on this occasion was clearly a superior team.

The game was closer than the score indicated, although the final outcome wasn’t seriously in doubt after Yolo jumped off to 2-0 lead in the top of the first.The High Wheelers’ starting pitcher, Ben Ferrer, struck out the three Ballers he faced in the bottom of the frame, and that set the tone for the rest of the contest.

Oakland rallied a few times but never caught up with their opponents, who won through a combination of their own good performance, some Oakland shortcomings, and a few sequences in which everything seemed to happen to the Ballers at just the wrong time..

The visitors outhit their hosts, 10-5. A pair of High Wheelers, José González and David Glancy, hit the ball out of the park, and three more, Brayland Skinner, Braylin Marine, and Angel Mendoza logged doubles. A trio of Ballers, Brett Carson, Daunté Stuart, and Tyler Lozano, homered, but those were the team’s only extra base hits. Brett Carson, Thursday’s hero, was the only Oaklander to turn in a multi-hit performance, a two out single in the fifth and a two out solo home run in the seventh, the home team’s swan song.

Ferrer went six innings to earn the win. For all his dominance in the opening frames (he struck out eight of the first 12 Ballers he faced), he allowed four hits and three runs, all earned, in six innings of work. That might be a quality start, but would you call someone with an ERA of 4.50 a quality pitcher?

Only if you were his agent. Jack Zatasky gave up a run on Carson’s four bagger. Connor Langrell and Ty Buckner followed him and held Oakland hitless and runless in the inning that each of them pitched, which earned Buckner the save.

The best pitching performance the Ballers got was from Zach St. Pierre, who relieved starter Luke Short (four runs, all earned, on six hits in 3-1/3 innings). St. Pierre allowed two runs in his three innings on the mound, but neither of them was earned. He allowed two hits and struck out two.

The crowd cheered and chanted “ZSP” as he left the field to make way for Christian Cosby in the top of the seventh. (“Oh, Tyler Lozano” was another chant that echoed across Raimondi Park several times over the course of the game).

Cosby promptly served up a sacrifice fly for a run that was charged to St. Pierre. The reason that neither that run nor the one that preceded it was earned is that Mendoza had reached third on an error by Oakland shortstop Brad Burkel that would have been the third out.

(That’s an example of what I meant by bad sequencing for the Ballers. An earlier one came on Skinner’s down the left field line RBI double in the third that Dandrei Hubbard could have handled if he hadn’t been playing in to defend against a bunt). Neither Cosby in his 2/3 of an inning nor Carson Lambert in his two full innings allowed a run, although each of them was touched for a hit .

The Glacier Range Riders whalloped the heavily favored Missoula Paddleheads, 17-3, Friday evening to take a commanding lead in the other first round playoff series. It looks like a Glacier-Yolo championship is in the offing while the Ballers wait ’til next year.

Ballers keep playoff hopes alive in edging Wheelers 1-0 at Raimondi; Series tied at 1-1

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A sell out crowd of 3,277 took in the action at Raimondi Park in Oakland in game 2 of the Pioneer League Playoff between the Yolo High Wheelers and the Oakland Ballers on Thu Sep 12, 2024 (Oakland Ballers photo)

Yolo High Wheelers (1-1) 000 000 000 0 4 1

Oakland Ballers (1-1) 000 010 00x 1 5 0

Time: 2:13

Attendance: 3,277

Thursday, September 12, 2024

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–This Thursday evening, before an enthusiastic near sellout crowd of 3,277, the Oakland Ballers forced a third and final game to the opening round of the 2024 Pioneer Baseball League playoffs by defeating the Yolo High Wheelers in a thrilling, well played, and tight pitchers’ duel, fending off their rivals, 1-0, in a contest that featured consistently elegant fielding by Yolo’s second baseman, Bobby Lada; brilliant mound work by Yolo’s four and Oakland’s three hurlers; a leaping over the wall first inning catch of Brett Barrrera’s drive to left by Yolo’s David Glancy; Oakland’s Brett Carson’s powerful, game deciding homer over the left centerfield fence in the fifth; and some clutch pitching in the ninth by Braydon Nelson, who, after a leadoff single to the speedy Brayland Skinner, who took second on a passed ball, retired Yolo’s second, third, and fourth batters to preserve Oakland’s win and gain the save.

Carson was the only player on either team to have a multiple hit night; his leadoff single to center in the third preceded his game winning shot. Yolo’s Braylin Marine got the only other extra base hit of the evening, a double off the centerfield wall to open the visitors’ fourth. That should give you an idea of how good the pitching was.

Chandler David went six innings for the Ballers to earn the win, allowing but one hit. It was Marine’s two bagger. David showed good control; although he hit one batter, he didn’t walk any. He notched nine strikeouts, and his ratio of fly outs to ground outs was 3-6.

He threw 68 pitches to the 20 High Wheelers he faced. Conner Sullivan allowed two hits and struck out four in his two inning relief stint. It took Nelson 15 pitches to earn the save I described in the first paragraph of this dispatch.

Brandon Mitchell pitched 5-1/3 strong innings, during which he allowed five hits, including Carson’s decisive blow,and a walk. He was charged with the tough loss. Ethan Bates faced three batters in his inning on the mound.

He retired all of them, one on a called third strike, but threw a wild pitch with an inherited runner on base. Andrew LaCour walked one and struck out one in his 2/3 of an inning. And Connor Langrell fanned one batter in the eighth. His brief mound tenure would have been perfected if the third strike hadn’t been a wild pitch that allowed Barrera to reach first, where he was stranded.

The Ballers’ victory forced a third, elimination game between the two California entries in the Pioneer League, both of which have the same principal owners. That game will be played Friday the 13th, at Raimondi Park in West Oakland. The scheduled starting time is 6:35. A few tickets still are available and can be purchased at oaklandballers.com.

The league championship series that awaits the survivor of Friday’s all or nothing set-to will be against the winner of the Glacier Range Riders-Missoula PaddleHeads series. On Tuesday, the Range Riders won the first game between them, and Thursday’s match was rained out.

That contest has been rescheduled for Friday. A third game, if necessary, is set for Saturday. The championship round schedule depends on who does what to whom in the coming days.

For the Ballers right now, the day that matters is Friday the 13th.

Six run forth gives Ballers 14-9 win over Wheelers at Raimondi Park

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There were plenty of Oakland Ballers at Raimondi Park in West Oakland who picked up a five run win over the Yolo High Wheelers on Sun Jul 7, 2024 (photo by the Oakland Ballers)

Yolo High Wheelers ((18-21) 040 050 000 9 9 2

Oakland Ballers (24-18) 004 611 20x 14 15 2

Time: 3:40

Attendance: 1,103

Sunday, July 7, 2024

By Lewis Rubman

WEST OAKLAND–Turnabout is fair play. What goes around comes around. History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy; the second as farce. Choose your cliché, this weekend’s battles royal between the Pioneer League’s two most recent entries had it.

Saturday afternoon, the Oakland Ballers fell behind their rivals from Davis 4-0 in the second inning. Yolo added two runs in each of the following three frames to amass a seemingly insurmountable 10-0 lead when the Ballers came to bat in the bottom of the fifth. They put a four spot on the board then and tacked on six more in the seventh to even the score only to run out of steam and fall 13-10.

That was a tough loss and a tough act to follow.

But the Ballers bounced back this Sunday afternoon, winning going away, 14-9, in ways that frequently harked back to Saturday’s debacle.

It started with another fearsome fourth run top of the second, which was particularly unsettling because the Wheelers also had posted a quartet of second inning tallies not just on Saturday, but on Friday as well. Sunday night’s featured a solo home run by Yolo’s DH, Justin Kirby, two singles—one of them on a bunt—, a double, and a misplay Myles Jefferson, usually a shortstop but playing second today.

It originally had been scored a hit but after much discussion was reclassified as an error. It was fitting that the game would end with Jefferson, who was moved back to his normal position in the top of the eighth, would pull off a beautiful play at short, for the game’s final out.

But the worm turned Sunday. Oakland answered Yolo’s attack with a counter offensive that evened the score in the third. A Payton Harden single, followed by an Austin Davis double off the left field wall and Trevor Halsema’s sac fly to left kick started the Oakland comeback. It continued with two way player JP Gates, in his designated hitter mode singled to left and trotted home on Dondrei Hubbard’s tying home run. That blast would be voted the play of the game.

It certainly changed the nature of the contest, but there was more to come. Instead of petering out, Oakland’s offense picked up in the fourth where it had left off in the third, sending ten men to the plate . The B’s began by clogging the base paths with one out, chasing Yolo starter JC Ariza from the mound, replaced by Jacob Stobart.

He walked Davis, putting the Ballers up by a run. With the count 2-1, Gates swung and connected for a two run single to right. Stobart plunked Hubbard. Noah Martínez smacked a two bagger to right, plating Gates and Hubbard. Now it was Oakland who had two digits in the R column.

Nightmare visions of Saturday’s squandered comeback briefly appeared in the visitors’ fifth, when five High Wheelers crossed the plate. Brayland Skinner walked, stole second, and took third on a wild pitch by Oakland’s starting pitcher, Christian Cosby, arguably the ace of the staff, having started the day with a record of 4-1, 4.79, which in the Pioneer League are Cy Young numbers.

Brylin Marine, Yolo’s batting leader, ground out to short but drove in Skinner, for Yolo’s fifth run. Bobby Lada’s double and a free passes to Brandon Blackford and Kirby loaded the bases and set the scene for Yolo’s last hurrah, a grand slam by Kirkland Banks. It came on the last of Cosby’s 118 pitches. Cosby was charged with nine runs, six earned, on seven hits, three walks, and a wild pitch. He struck out 10.

The Ballers added a superfluous but reassuring run in each of the fifth and sixth innings, and two final tallies in the seventh.

After Cosby’s departure, one out short of earning (by the skin of his teeth the win), the Ballers used three relievers. None of them permitted any Yolo runs. The eventual winner, Zach St. Pierre, threw 26 pitches in two hitless innings to gain his first win against two losses. Conner Richardson gave up a hit in 1-1/3 frames, in which he threw 33 pitches. Carson Lambert’s 17 pitch one hit ninth closed the book on the High Wheelers.

The crew from Davis also sent four hurlers to the mound. Following Ariza (3-1/3 IP, seven runs, all earned; seven hits (one out of the park); three walks, and a hit batter, all on 70 pitches) were Stobart (1-1/3 innings, four runs, earned, three hits, two walks, and a strikeout on 26 pitches); Kris Anglin (a hit in two thirds of an inning, 17 pitches; and Noah Estrella, who allowed Oakland its last three runs, all earned, in 2-2/3 innings, in which he gave up four hits and walk on 41 pitches).

Three Ballers had multi-hit games. Two way Gates led the way, going five for five. Move over, Ohtani! Noah Martínez went three for four; Davis, two for five. Davis, Gates and Martínez doubled. Hubbard, Martínez, and Jaylen Smith hit four baggers for the home team.

Kirkland Banks and Kyle Guerra, with two apiece, had multi-hit games for the High Wheelers. Each of them also homered. Bobby Lada and Banks banged two baggers. Marine, who went one for five, extended his streak of consecutive games reaching base safely to 25.

After their usual Monday day off, the Ballers will open a new six game home series, beginning Tuesday the ninth at 6:35 against the last place Great Falls Voyagers

Ballers Hubbard takes Wheelers deep in 8-6 win in Davis

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Oakland Ballers defeated the Davis High Wheelers on Sun Jun 23, 2024 in Davis. Here the Ballers pitching coach Jim Dedrick talks to the players in the dugout before their game on Tue Jun 4, 2024 at Raimondi Field in Oakland. (AP file photo)

Oakland Ballers (17-13)         1 3 1 0 0 0 3 0 0     8 10 0
Yolo High Wheelers(14-13)   0 1 1 0 0 4 0 0 0    6 12 2

Time: 3:15

Attendance: Not announced, but probably short of 100

By Lewis Rubman

DAVIS–This Sunday–and I do mean SUNday–in Davis, with the temperature in the 90s from the opening pitch at 1:05 to the final out at 4:20, the Ballers, who had been scuffling at the plate most of last week,  Ballers built up a 5-2 lead over the host Yolo High Wheelers in the first 5-1/2 innings of play,  blew it in the bottom of the sixth but escaped by breaking the rules, and battled back to win going away, 8-6.

The Ballers scored first, on a 351 foot solo home run by Dondrei Hubbard  to left in the  spacious Dobbins Stadium. It came off the Wheelers’ starter, Ben Ferrer, Hubbard  who had earned his second win of the season on June 20 by holding the Ballers scoreless in one inning of relief work.

He’s become quite familiar with the Ballers lineup; this was the fourth time he’d faced them in the teams’ inaugural season. He got a no decision today, leaving his won-lost record of 2-1  and his ERA of 5.16 intact. Austin Davis also smacked a solo round tripper to the same general area leading off the visitors’ seventh.

  Davis’s four bagger retied the score after Oakland had fallen behind in the sixth frame. His victim was Jacob Stobart, who took the loss, his first of the season against four wins. Many people think of him as Yolo’s best pitcher.

The Ballers blew their lead when Yolo batted around in the sixth. It came about as the result of walks to Justin Kirby and designated pinch hitter Alejandro Figueredo and singles by José González, Tanner Smith,  Kirkland Banks, and Braylin Marine.

Oakland’s starter, Aaron Eden gave up the walk to Kirby and the singles to Smith and Banks. The remainder was surrendered by Jake Dahle, who relieved Eden. Yolo was leading  6-5 when the dust settled.

Oakland drew even on the Davis dinger and tacked on a couple of runs more and was ahead 8-6 after the few fans in attendance sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”Next came what was the most fascinating sequence of the contest.

One of the Ballers’ versions of Shohei Ohtani, second baseman-pitcher JP Gates, who had been the designated hitter, moved to the mound. He gave up a single to center to González and a bunt single to Blackford before being relieved by JC Ariza.

This violated themust face three batters or finish the frame rule, but no one called this to the attention of home plate umpire Bill Shortridge, and so Ariza arose to the occasion by retiring 

the three batters he faced to finish up a scoreless seventh and, in spite of a hit batter and a wild pitch, a scoreless eighth. Tyler Davis, another two way player earned his second save of the season, setting the Wheelers down 1,2,3 in the ninth.

Monday is a day of rest in the Pioneer League. The Ballers will play the the Northern Colorado Owlz on Tuesday evening, the first of a six game series. The probable pitchers haven’t been announced.

Wheelers roll over Ballers 9-3 in inaugural home opener at Raimondi Park

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The Yolo High Wheelers and Oakland Ballers played in the inaugural home opener at Raimondi Park in West Oakland on Tue Jun 4 2024 (photo by Gail Rubman Sports Radio Service)

Yolo High Wheelers (6-4) 010 002 222 9 10 0

Oakland Ballers (7-6) 200 000 001 3 5 1

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

By Lewis Rubman

WEST OAKLAND–4,100 fans filled Raimondi Park this evening to see the Oakland Ballers fall, 9-3, the Yolo High Wheelers, the other new entry in the Pioneer Baseball League, in the Ballers’ home, and I mean home opener. The A’s barely outdrew the B’s with 5624 at the Coliseum on the same night.

The game was crisp and close, with the Ballers leading 2-1 in the early innings 2-1, but baserunning mistakes prevented them from adding to their advantage, and the High Wheelers tacked on two runs in each of the four final frames to roll over their hosts in what had become somewhat of a farce.

Dondrei Hubbard’s two run homer to left center with Payton Harden on base put Oakland on top in the first. Yolo countered that in their half of the second when B’s starter Derrick Cherry granted back to back walks to Sam Kuchinski and Braedon Blackford, both of whom were singled home by Kirkland Banks.

Things started to go haywire for the home team in their half of the third. High Wheeler starter Cameron Repetti surrendered a one out walk to Austin Davis. Repetti then threw to first in a pick off attempt. Davis was caught in a run down from which it seemed impossible to escape, especially when first base umpire Ron Adams called him out for running out of the baseline.

Manager Micah Franklin contested the call, which came before the play had been completed. The umpires conferred and ruled that there was no play and that Davis could return to first safely.

The pickoff attempt had been Repetti’s second in the at bat, a fact he must have forgotten, because he made one more attempt to catch Davis napping. That third interruption constituted a balk, which sent the runner to second. The Ballers couldn’t capitalize on the no play, but its weirdness seemed to change the tone of the game.

By the bottom of the sixth, the B’s were trailing, 3-2, thanks to Sam Kochinsky’s two run four bagger to left center, but Oakland was fighting back. There were runners on first and second. The runner on second was Davis. He took his lead. Repetti turned around and fired the ball to second baseman Bobby Lada.

There was no rundown this time. Davis was well and truly picked off. Myles Jefferson’s single and a base on balls to Noah Martínez were to no avail. The damage couldn’t be undone, and Oakland never came close again.

Things got uglier for the Ballers in Yolo’s half of the eighth. Oakland, already down, 5-2, was on their third pitcher, Jake Dahle, who had followed Abraham de León, who had relieved Cherry. Dahle walked Braedon Blackford and, after fanning Tanner Smith, allowed a single to center. Manager Franklin yanked Dahle and replaced him with Connor Richardson. A wild pitch and a single by Angel Mendoza later, and the High Wheelers were up, 7-2,

Eric Walichuk took the mound as Oakland’s fifth and final pitcher of the night to start off the ninth. He struck out Lada, the first batter he faced. He fanned him on a wild pitch, and the Wheelers second sacker made it to first safely. He didn’t need to steal second; he had a five run lead, but he did. Another reason he didn’t need to pilfer the base was that José Gonzalez sent the ball over the left field fence to make the score 9-2

It hardly mattered that the B’s loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth against Noah Estrella, who came in to mop things up in the last scene of the final act of tonight’s farce. Indeed, he issued three walks and an RBI single to pinch hitter Jaylen Smith. Yolo won handily, 9-3.

The winners had four batters with multi-hit games, González, Kuchinski, Kirkland Banks, and Mendoza, each of which got two hits. Five Ballers got hits, one each for Harden, Jefferson, Hubbard, Trevor Halsema, and Smith.

Repetti was the winning pitcher; he’s now 1-0. De León, who faced four batters in 2/3 of an inning, took the loss and now is 0-1.

There are a few things about the Pioneer Baseball League that may be confusing to those of us who haven’t been following the events in the lower minor leagues. First, there is the league’s name.

If you search for “Pioneer League” or “Pioneer League baseball” on your computer, you’ll find a wealth of information on the Pioneer Baseball League, a youth organization in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, as well as about the PBL, a descendant of the original Pioneer League, founded in 1939.

When minor league baseball suspended operation in 2020 as a response to the Covid pandemic, it was a short season rookie league, which means that it followed the rules of MLB and its subsidiary MiLB. With the reorganization of MiLB in 2021, the PBL became a partner league, affiliated with MLB but not with any of its member teams.

The new circuit describes itself as “a true development league, with players having less than 3 years of professional experience … focused on innovation and experimental rules.” These two terms— three years experience as a pro and experimental rules — invite further clarification.

Appearance in 30 games constitutes a year for position players. For pitchers, it’s seven starts or 18 games played. All professional leagues, no matter where located except the MLB Draft League, the United Shore Professional Baseball League, the Mavericks Independent Baseball League, leagues in the Caribbean Federation (including the Dominican Summer League and Venezuelan Summer League), the Australian Baseball League or any other winter league.

The PBL also allows each member team to name one “Franchise Player.” The requirements for this designation are a minimum of two years’ experience in the PBL the most recent of which was with the team that names him as an FP. There is a one year term limit for franchise players.

Like their teammates, franchise players can be player-coaches. If the franchise player leaves the team through injury or transfer to the majors, the PBL team can request that the league president allow a replacement, a decision to be made at the sole discretion of the president.

The league doesn’t have a zombie runner rule for games tied at the end of nine innings. It has something new and completely different unless you’re a hockey or soccer fan, the knockout inning. It’s a home run derby between designated HR hitters from the two teams. Each HRH has two minutes to hit as many homers as possible.

The reconfigured PBL experimental rules allow designated pinch hitters and designated pinch runners, who can enter a game as a PH or PR and either stay in the lineup or return to the bench for the rest of the game, allowing the player he’s substituted for to remain in the game.

PBL batters, unlike those in other leagues, can appeal the home plate umpire’s call on checked swings. Even the appearance of the playing field in the Pioneer Baseball League may seem strange to newcomers.

The area around second base in which no fielder is allowed to stand before the ball is pitched is marked in chalk on the infield dirt. This area is called the “pie slice.” Interesting enough, the pie slice wasn’t marked off on Raimondi Park’s diamond tonight.

Time clock limits in the PBL can be found at https://www.pioneerleague.com/sports/bsb/2023/releases/20230216krjfqr.

Wednesday, the second of this six game series will start at 6:35. A six game series between the same teams … it sounds like the old PCL.