Game 27 Recap: Coast Cruise
Coast Cruise Past Ballers 12-8 on Lil Ballers Night
by Joe Horton
In a game that felt copy-and-pasted from the day before, the Long Beach Coast got to Oakland Ballers pitching early, churned out 16 hits, and cruised to a comfortable win in front of a kid-forward crowd. Even the Beer Batter—tonight, Jacob Jablonski, 3/5 with two RBI—once again used his selection to hit a homer and have a big night. The B’s managed to claw back a few late runs, but it wasn’t enough to mount any real threat. A series that started in a tight and thrilling knockout win ended with a whimper: two blowouts that affirmed Long Beach as the class of the league and the B’s with work to do to level up.
B’s starter Aidan Risse put a zero on the board in the first, but Coast bats would then score in every inning from the second to the seventh, with four Coasters homering. Risse’s final line: 4.1 with with eight earned, three walks, and two strikeouts. Coast starter Nick Bautista, meanwhile, got a measure of revenge against his old team—the B’s traded him at the end of May, and he’s been a key member of the Coast's rotation with its league-best ERA since. Today he went five innings, giving up three runs while striking out five.
Bright spots for the B’s included 2B Nick Leehey’s three-run homer in the sixth that cut the B’s deficit to 11-5. Dispatches caught up with him after the game and asked his approach for the at-bat:
“He started me off with a slider, and then he went fastball away, and looked like the only thing he could land was a slider. So I was maybe sitting on it a little bit there. Yeah. I got the pitch, I was able to get it up and out of the yard, so, you know, that was a good one.”
What are his expectations for the team going into the Modesto series starting tomorrow?
“It's a long season. We just got to keep stacking days, stacking at-bats, and hitting one pitch at a time. We got a good squad over here…Especially the two weeks out in Montana, the guys were all hanging out, playing games after the game, hanging out with each other, going off to dinner. Going out to breakfast in the morning. The team's a tight-knit group. We tend to stay that way, and we're gonna have a good rest of the way,” said Leehey. “We’ll be all right. Tough spot to be in right now, but we're gonna work our way through it for sure.”
1B Jeter Ybarra added another multi-homer game to his remarkable season when he hit his second in the bottom of the ninth. I asked what he would have said a month ago if I’d told him he would be leading the league—now with 14—in home runs?
“Oh, I’d be shocked. I don't think I'd believe you. Because before this year, I think my record was like seven home runs and over a course of 56 games and I think we're at about 30 and I've got doubled that already. So I don't think I'd believe you,” Ybarra said. “I mean, this field kind of plays in my favor a little bit. I get a lot of balls oppo that are going in the air and with the way this field set up, it helps me a lot.”
Any changes at the plate that might account for this career year, other than just the field?
“Honestly, it's just looking for a good pitch over the plate and not missing it. I think that's the biggest thing: simplifying everything that you're looking for. The more you think, the harder it is to hit, and it's already hard enough. So trying to almost black out is my motto and kind of just get into a flow state is what they call it and just thinking about seeing the ball over the plate and putting a good swing on it.”
Oakland (12-15) hosts the new PBL addition Modesto Roadsters starting tomorrow for a weekend three game stand. The teams met in a preseason exhibition game in Modesto that the Roadsters won 14-2. On Tuesday, the B’s then travel to Modesto for a midweek set. Both squads will come to know the drive well: the teams play each other 24 times this season.
Odds & Ends:
Add Coast reliever Steven Ordorica to Dispatches’ unofficial Unusual Delivery Club.
It was Scrappy Necklace night, and while everyone wore it well, I think we have a winner:
Joe Horton is the editor of Dispatches from Raimondi.
