Luke Short Absolutely Dealt

Ballers players sign autographs after completing a five-of-six series victory over the Glacier Range Riders at Raimondi Park

RAIMONDI PARK, OAKLAND - Sometimes you can tell when something special is brewing in a ballgame's early going. Such was the case Sunday afternoon with Luke Short on the bump.

The Cal product began the game by striking out Glacier Range Riders leadoff man T.J. Clarkson, who had been enjoying quite a good series himself, with four homeruns (including two on Friday night). After allowing a single to Logan Beard, Short set down Xavier Casserilla and Kenneth Levari on strikes to end the inning. In the second, Short retired the Range Riders in order with two strikeouts. Then, in the third, another one-two-three with a pair of K’s. In the fourth, Short once again set Glacier down in order.

When all was said and done, Short had thrown 7 2/3 innings, allowing three runs (all in the eighth before he was pulled) on five hits, walking one and striking out twelve. It was a pitching masterclass.

Caleb Franzen finished the eighth, and Gabe Tanner, a new signing making his professional debut after a decorated career at Cal State East Bay, read Glacier their last rites in the ninth.

And, yet, the Oakland mound dominance was only half the story.

The B’s tallied 15 runs, truncating Ty Bothwell’s afternoon with a four-round knockout. The Pioneer League Pitcher of the Week for June 9-15, the tough lefty looked like his usual stellar self in setting the Ballers down in order in the first inning, but immediately ran into trouble when he had to deal with the middle of the Oakland order in the second. Cam Bufford, who has become a fearsome presence over the past few weeks, led off with a homerun that may still be soaring through the night skies. Rattled, Bothwell walked Ryan Pierce, the former Saint Mary’s star who was making his first professional start at first base. Pierce advanced to second on a groundout and was balked over to third. He scored on a Darryl Buggs single; Buggs, in turn, scored on a Pat Monteith homerun, his first round-tripper since taking Grand Junction’s Tai Atkins deep at Raimondi back on May 27. The B’s added three more in the fourth, the big blow a two-run Dillon Tatum homerun. That frame chased Bothwell from the box.

Things were relatively quiet for a couple innings, with Short continuing to turn Glacier’s bats into mulch and Range Rider relievers Noah Owen and Davis Pratt keeping the Ballers off the board in the fifth and sixth frames; Pratt pitched around some traffic in the sixth and induced a double-play to finish the inning. But Oakland pushed across two in the seventh to lengthen their lead to 9-0.

Glacier finally found their way onto the scoreboard at the expense of a tiring Short, who, after allowing three runs on a Beard double, left the game with two out and a runner on second and having thrown 108 pitches. That Short was allowed to pitch as long as he did was two-fold: he obviously deserved to remain in the game, given his dominance as well as the run support his teammates gave him; it also, perhaps, reflected a desire to take a rested bullpen into the off day prior to a tough road series. Franzen needed only one pitch in relief of Short to finish the eighth, and Tanner threw just nine in finishing the game.

Oakland now boasts a shiny 21-9 record, still tied with Missoula atop the standings (but effectively in second place due to the PaddleHeads owning the tiebreaker). Their next opponents, the Boise Hawks, are 19-11, and just finished off a six-game sweep over the Great Falls Voyagers, including a 17-1 bludgeoning on Wednesday. The Hawks have won their last seven games in a row and eight of their last ten. Boise also sits just two games behind the B’s in the standings, so this will be a huge test for both teams.