PBL Championship Picks!
Dispatchers pick the last team standing for the 2026 Pioneer League season for the kids who are sad it’s not the B’s
The title clash is here. From twelve teams we are down to two. California vs. Montana. West vs. Mountain. Can a CA team make it three straight trophies? Will blueblood Billings win for the first time since 2014?
Billings dispatched Missoula in two games, meaning streaks good and bad continue for the PaddleHeads—they’ve made the playoffs every year since the Pioneer League became an MLB partner league in 2021, but they’ve only won once, in that first go. The Long Beach Coast and Modesto Roadsters went the full three games with the Coast coming out on top 6-3 in the deciding tilt.
In the best-of-three championship series, Long Beach will host just one game today before two travel days to Billings where the series will conclude with one or two games if needed. Billings gets home field due to overall record, where they finished one game ahead of Long Beach. Fascinatingly, Long Beach forfeited a game at Glacier on August 9 due to poor air quality from wildfires. In the multiverse where they hadn’t, and won, and the teams had ended with tied records, a coin flip would have determined home field. But also some credit to the Coast: since their one series game is a Tuesday, the team is keeping their season-long $2 Tuesdays promotion in play. That’s a hell of a deal for championship ball.
Our Dispatchers return to their picks to see who will (temporarily) hoist the (Ballers’ rightful) trophy (forlornly held by my son) come Friday or Saturday.
Game 1 is tonight from Blair Field in Long Beach starting at 6:35pm Pacific. Available on HomeTeam Network.
Robert Santiago
It's PBL Championship time. Finally, a baseball league that has the good manners to end just as football is gearing up. I've done a deep dive on these teams, meaning I looked at the scant stats the PBL makes available and applied some 6th grade math. These teams did not meet in the regular season so we have no head-to-head data. Billings was the superior offensive team during the regular season, besting Long Beach in every important offensive metric and striking out fewer times than the Coast. On the other side of the ball, Long Beach did better at preventing runs and leading the league in ERA and WHIP, though Billings's hurlers got more strikeouts from opposing batters. So we have a classic pitching versus hitting matchup.
Over the course of these very short playoffs, these trends have held up. Neither team is knocking the cover off the ball, as you'd expect with better pitching in the playoffs. Billings is hitting .287 as a team and averaging 3 extra base hits (XBH) per game. Long Beach is hitting a collective .242 and also averaging 3 XBH per nine innings. On the pitching side, both teams' starters have gone past the 5 inning mark save for a bullpen game by Long Beach on Saturday. Though the Billings starters' numbers look good in terms of innings pitched (14.1) and ERA (1.88) they have walked a tightrope in putting up these numbers while allowing 17 hits and 4 walks. For Long Beach, the IP (12.2) and ERA (3.55) look worse, but have come while allowing only 12 hits and 4 walks. As a staff, Long Beach leads Billings in WHIP, 1.19 to 1.61, while also averaging 1 additional K/9 (7 to 6).
What does it mean? With the hitting close, I give the edge to pitching in the playoffs. Though it's unlikely for Game 1, a pitching matchup between Long Beach's Nick Bautista (former Baller) and Billings' Cole Calnon could be a PBL classic at some point in the series. Despite the better starters' ERA for Billings, the Long Beach staff’s ability to prevent base runners will swing the series their way.
Long Beach in 3.
Stars to watch:
Billings:
Cole Calnon SP (1-0, 3.68)
Julian Garcia SP (1-0, 0.00)
A.J. Shaver CF (.750)
Justin Johnson Jr. 1B (.500)
Kyle Hvidsten C (.333/.625/1.00)
Long Beach:
Nick Bautista SP (1-0, 1.42)
Nathan Hemmerling SP (1-0, 5.68)
Benjamin Rosengard 3B (.545)
Cooper Vest RF (.300/.417/1.00)
Anthony Mata SS (.364)
Kyle Robinson
India (age 3) says take Billings in 3. JT Snow is putting this series under protest.
Chris Drue
I’m still going with Long Beach 100% because of their pitching. Especially in a shortened series, it’s going to be whoever “blinks” first and gives up runs—we saw this against Modesto in the first round.
LBC has a BAA 50+ points lower than Billings on the season. That’s a MASSIVE gap, the difference between a great night of hitting and a below-average one.
While the Mustangs have a top-10 offense, I still think the edge goes to the Coast—they’re going to be able to empty the gas tank on one of indy ball’s elite pitching staffs.
My prediction is a mirror of the Modesto series—LBC in 3.
Nick Clementi
Billings at home to win it all. The Mustangs are comfortable in higher altitude, which they never had to leave this season. It’s too fitting that they win at home over a California team. Billings’ bats over Long Beach pitching in a two-game sweep. AJ Shaver cements his Billings legacy with another huge series.
First championship celebration in Billings since 2014, and the first in their indy ball existence.
Michael Thompson
As a function of the Pioneer League's regionally-focused scheduling, these teams have never faced each other. There's not much to go off of, but I expect each team to win the opening game at their home stadium. Game 3 is basically a coin toss; I predict that Billings strings together just enough pitching to win their record 16th Pioneer League championship (dating back to their first in 1950!).
Final Prediction: 2-1 Billings
Dan Silvert
I amend my pick (in the finals, Long Beach in 3). Billings in 3.
Dawn Pieper
Welp, I’m a lifelong California girl and I grew up in SoCal so I should be hoping for LBC to take it all, but gosh darn (see, I’ve cleaned up my language since the first round of playoffs) if I don’t want Billings to kick their beach bums because that’s what they did to us in the first half of the season. (Was that a run on sentence?) Hoping for Billings but I predict LBC will take home the championship trophy.
Roberto Santiago is a third generation Berkeley boy currently raising the fourth generation. Roberto’s writing has appeared in Latina, Parents, and various online outlets. A lifelong baseball fan, Roberto worked briefly with the Boston Red Sox and once hit an RBI single off Spaceman Lee on a 2-2 changeup. It was his only at bat ever in a real baseball game. Find him on Instagram.
Kyle Robinson is a transplanted Texan with a lifelong passion for the game of baseball. Residing in Oakland with his wife Randi, their daughter India, and a menagerie of pets. When he’s not slyly convincing his wife to name their pets after legendary baseball broadcasters (e.g. our corgi Milo Hamilton Robinson) he is probably balancing parenthood with trying to cram in as much baseball as possible. Whether it’s keeping the dream alive as a weekend warrior behind the dish, or on the sideline as a coach, volunteering, rest assured he has baseball on the brain. Find him on Instagram: @krob452
Chris Drue is an East Bay native who has loved baseball since visiting the Coliseum with his dad as a kid. His favorite combo at Raimondi Park is a Fieldwork Day Money and a veggie dog (in a helmet!). His favorite pitch is the eephus, with a Barry Zito 12-6 curveball (circa 2002) a very close second. Find him on Instagram.
Nick Clementi is an Oakland native and lifelong Oakland baseball fan. He enjoys long walks on the beach and summer nights at Raimondi Park. He’s a Scrappy enthusiast who doesn't believe in sacrifice bunts. Sports content moderator by day, Ballers beat writer by night. Find him on Instagram and Twitter.
Michael Thompson is a Bay Area student entering his senior year of high school. He writes about MLB and other baseball leagues on his Substack, as well as for Dispatches. After high school, he plans to attend college and work in the sports industry.
Dan Silvert was born in Berkeley, raised in Piedmont and has spent two decades living in Oakland. He is a residential Realtor® and Ballers advertiser/sponsor who referees high school/college lacrosse and trains Brazilian jiu jitsu and plays disc golf in his free time. He is grateful for the Ballers restoring his love of baseball.
Dawn Pieper is an Oakland resident, B’s superfan, and leading Ballunteer. She works with animal rescues including Full Circle Cats.
