Ballers Drop Finale, Settle for Series Split

Big innings, silent bats doom Oakland in 8-2 defeat

RAIMONDI PARK, OAKLAND, CA — The Ogden Raptors played like a team possessed.

Less than twenty-four hours dropping a 9-2 decision thanks in part to Reid Butz’s seven shutout innings, the Raptors wasted no time jumping on Oakland’s pitching, denting the plate three times in the game’s initial stanza to grab a lead that they would not relinquish.

Just for good measure, they tacked on three more in the fourth.

When all was said and done, the B’s found themselves on the sick end of a 8-2 score, a chance to capture the series unceremoniously squelched. Instead, they will have to be content with a three-three split.

Damian Stone, the Raptor right fielder who hails from the Bay Area and had some twenty family members in attendance each game, jumped on a Dylan Porter offering for a base hit to open the game. Cole Jordan followed with a hit of his own, and Connor Bagnieski drew a walk to load the bases. After inducing a harmless infield popup from Chris Sargent and fanning True Fontenot, it looked as if Porter would escape unharmed.

Well, no.

Elliot Good, the shortstop who quietly enjoyed a pleasant six days in West Oakland, drilled a two-run single to kick off the scoring, and go on to record three hits in four at-bats, score a run and drive in three. After Good’s run-scoring knock, first baseman Carter Mize followed with an RBI hit of his own before Porter whiffed Carmine Lane to end the inning.

The bottom of the Raptors’ order got to Porter in the fourth, as Good led off by reaching on an error. After Mize was caught looking, Lane and Kenneth Oyama, the eight- and nine-hole hitters, reached on a hit and a walk, respectively, to load the bases. That spelled the end of Porter’s day. James Colyer yielded a sacrifice fly to Stone, scoring Good, then surrendered a base hit to Jordan to send Lane scampering across. An infield hit by Bagnieski brought Oyama in, closing the book on Porter’s stat line: six runs allowed, three of them unearned.

The Ballers did manage to scratch across a run in the bottom of the third, thanks to an RBI single by Christian Almanza, but Ogden starter Miguel Hernandez simply wasn’t feeling very charitable. The former Atlanta Braves farmhand held the B’s to just one run in 5 1/3 innings, scattering seven hits while walking two and striking out a half-dozen, bending on occasion but never breaking. Oakland would tack on a second tally in the bottom of the ninth, with Lou Helmig driving in Marques Titialii, the author of a leadoff double, but it was far too little and far too late.

Series notes:

• Oakland and Ogden split three games apiece

• Tremayne Cobb Jr. has impressed thus far, ringing up a .467 batting average and .500 on-base percentage over the six games

• Titialii swatted two homeruns, including a grand slam on Friday, and has eight RBI

• Reliever Conner Richardson has picked up where he left off last year, allowing no runs through four innings

• Ogden’s Elliot Good leaves town having recorded seven hits in 21 at bats, with six runs scored and three driven in

• Buoyed by the presence of family in the stands, Damien Stone batted .524 (11-for-21) during his stay in Oakland

Next up:

The Grand Junction Jackalopes travel to Oakland as the Ballers’ season-opening homestand continues. This will be the first time the two franchises have squared off.

The Jacks are coming off a dreadful series up in Marysville, dropping five of six to the Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers, including losses of 9-0 and 14-4.

Utility player Evan Scavotto faced the Ballers last year as a member of the Northern Colorado Owlz, collecting eight hits in 23 at-bats with a double and a homerun.

The Jackalopes were founded in 1978 as the Butte Copper Kings, a Milwaukee Brewers affiliate. From 2001 through 2021, they were a Colorado Rockies affiliate, playing in Casper, Wyoming for twelve seasons before moving to their current home city in Grand Junction, Colorado.