Oakland Offense Explodes for 16-1 Victory
Four different Ballers homered in a Friday fireworks display of sorts, a 16-1 drubbing of the Ogden Raptors.
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
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1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | X | 16 | 16 | 1 |
By Nevada Cullen
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Four different Ballers homered in a Friday fireworks display of sorts, a 16-1 drubbing of the Ogden Raptors. Christian Almanza led Oakland with three extra-base hits and six RBI in the contest.
Davis Drewek opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. He scraped the clouds with a solo moonshot to left, his second opposite-field long ball in three days. Drewek managed to reach base in all six plate appearances on the evening, collecting three hits and touching home four times.
The Raptors knotted the game in the second, but Lou Helmig quickly untied it in the third. Helmig lined a leadoff dinger to left for his first Ballers bomb. He finished the contest with three knocks and a pair of RBI.
Oakland ended up posting a four-spot in the third inning. Almanza became the third lefty with an opposite-field blast in three frames, sending a two-run shot out to left, his second in as many days. Dillon Tatum drove home his first Oakland run towards the conclusion of the inning with an RBI single, one of three base hits for the catcher on the night.
The Ballers cooked up another crooked number in the fifth, grabbing five more runs. Helmig, Drewek, Almanza and Daniel Harris IV strung together four straight run-scoring knocks.
Meanwhile, Oakland starting pitcher Dylan Matsuoka cruised on the mound in his first Pioneer League start. Matsuoka went five frames, yielded just three hits and one run, walked one, struck out seven and earned the win in his Ballers debut.
Another debutant on the hill, Caleb Franzen, pitched two innings of hitless relief for the Ballers. Franzen, Alec Rodriguez and Zach St. Pierre dominated out of the Oakland bullpen, keeping Ogden scoreless and hitless over the final four frames.
Marques Titialii placed the cherry on top in the eighth. He launched his first professional hit over the left-field wall for a grand slam, ballooning the Ballers' lead to 15.
In the end, the Ballers put up the most runs (16) that they've scored in a game since their 31-5 beatdown of the Northern Colorado Owlz on August 21 (during Oakland's inaugural season). Following back-to-back losses in which Oakland allowed double-digit runs, the Ballers flipped the script on the Raptors.
With the series tied at two, first pitch for game five of the six-game series against the Raptors is scheduled for 4:35 p.m. PDT on Saturday. You can listen to the action on 860 AM The Answer and on the Oakland Ballers YouTube channel.
