Long Beach regulates Oakland for a six-run comeback victory
The Long Beach Coast (5-3) defeated the Oakland Ballers (3-5) to claim their first win under their new Regulators alternate identity as well as their second series win on Wednesday afternoon.
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 14 | 14 | 2 |
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5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 13 | 1 |
OAKLAND, CA – The Long Beach Coast (5-3) defeated the Oakland Ballers (3-5) to claim their first win under their new Regulators alternate identity as well as their second series win on Wednesday afternoon.
The Ballers took a thunderous 6-0 lead after two innings, which led off with a five-run rally in the bottom of the first, stemming from a pair of Long Beach errors by second baseman Jacob Jablonski and third baseman Paul Winland. This deficit tied the biggest for Long Beach in their initial eight games on the road.
Ballers’ starter Joel Tornero threw the first four innings of the game, with three scoreless (two shutdown innings) to set the tone for Oakland. The early shutout was ended on a two-run home run by catcher Cuba Bess in the top of the fourth.
Winland and B’s second baseman Nick Leehey exchanged solo shots in the fifth inning to keep the game at a four-run advantage after five, after which point both starters left the game.
After stretchtime, Ballers catcher Nick Poss got back the original six-run lead courtesy of a two-run shot off of Regulators reliever Ricky Tibbett.
Ballers reliever Valek Cisneros threw two scoreless innings to carry Oakland’s lead into the eighth. Blake Barker took the mound for the setup inning and immediately gave up a leadoff home run to second Long Beach catcher Thomas McCaffrey, kicking off a 12-batter, eight-run rally off of three different Ballers arms for their first lead of the game.
With the new 11-9 Long Beach lead, Julien Hernandez made quick work of the next three Ballers batters – a 10-pitch 1-2-3 shutdown inning to maintain momentum for the Regulators.
Long Beach scored three insurance runs in the top of the ninth, putting the 14-9 lead on the shoulders of Zach Voelker. Despite giving up a leadoff home run to Ballers first baseman Jeter Ybarra and allowing two Ballers to get into scoring position, Voelker held the lead for the first ever Regulators victory.
The twice deficit of six runs also marked the biggest comeback of the season for Long Beach in their first eight games. Ricky Tibbett (1-0) received his first win of the new season, while Braydon Nelson (1-1), the third pitcher of the comeback rally in the eighth, took his first loss.
Long Beach will go for their first sweep on Thursday night at 6:35 PM PST at Raimondi Park.
Joey Miller