Oakland Ballers beat Ogden Raptors 22-11, then win new Home Run Derby Night
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- Ogden Raptors player Dylan Wilkinson, left, swings at a pitch as Oakland Ballers catcher Dillon Tatum and umpire Zac Dart watch the ball in on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Oakland Ballers shortstop Tremayne Cobb Jr. slides safely into home plate against the Ogden Raptors on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Ogden Raptors player Dylan Wilkinson slides underneath a leaping Oakland Ballers second baseman Daniel Harris IV on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Oakland Ballers players Tremayne Cobb Jr., left, and Esai Santos high-five after Santos homered against the Ogden Raptors on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Ogden Raptors players watch the action in a game against the Oakland Ballers on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Ogden raptors pitcher Nico Saltaformaggio winds up to throw against the Oakland Ballers on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Ogden Raptors player Carmine Lane slides into second base in a game against the Oakland Ballers on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Ogden Raptors outfielder Kenny Oyama looks into the field as he rounds third base against the Oakland Ballers on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Ogden Raptors outfielders Cole Jordan (3), Kenny Oyama (18) and Kyler Stancato (10) stand during the playing of the national anthem before a game Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Ogden Raptors player Dylan Wilkinson hustles around third base against the Oakland Ballers on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Longtime, retired college baseball coaching veteran Jim Gilligan, left, speaks with Ogden Raptors reliever Christian Griffin in the dugout Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Ogden Raptors shortstop Elliott Good bats against the Oakland Ballers on Saturday, June 14, 2025, at Lindquist Field in Ogden.
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- Fans queue at the gates of Lindquist Field before an Ogden Raptors baseball game Saturday, June 14, 2025, in Ogden.
OGDEN — The Oakland Ballers put together a one-of-a-kind inning to handily defeat the Ogden Raptors 22-11 on Saturday night in Pioneer Baseball League action, then the visitors won again after the game in the debut of the new Home Run Derby Night competition.
It was hard to remember the time when Ogden led 3-0 through one inning when Chris Sargent doubled in a run and Dylan Wilkinson singled home two more.
The first pitch of the second inning went from the hand of Raptors (11-12) starting pitcher Miguel Hernandez, hard off the bat of Ballers first baseman Christian Almanza, and directly to the lower leg of Hernandez.
Hernandez recovered enough to attempt a throw to first, which Almanza beat safely, then spent a couple minutes being evaluated by trainers and staff. He remained in the game and the carousel got going.
Oakland (15-8) recorded nine hits and drew three walks before Ogden recorded a single out in the top of the second. The Ballers ultimately racked up 15 runs on 12 hits in the inning, batting through their order two full times.
The Ballers mostly peppered the park with singles to every hole and gap, but the 15-run outburst got punctuations from designated hitter Esai Santos. He hit a three-run homer in his first at-bat of the frame and a two-run double the second time he stood at the plate. Hernandez faced eight batters in the inning without recording an out, surrendering six hits and walking two, and was ultimately charged with eight earned runs in the inning.
Relief pitcher Nico Saltaformaggio couldn’t slow things down, allowing seven runs on six more hits before tallying three outs and finally ending the half-inning that took at least 30 minutes to complete.
Saltaformaggio did pitch the third and the fourth, allowing just one more run on two hits, but the damage was fully done. Oakland wouldn’t need to score again, though it would to turn a 15-3 lead into a 22-11 victory. Of the team’s 19 hits, four were doubles (two from Lou Helmig), one was a Pat Monteith triple that hit off the top of the left-field wall and shot directly up but did not leave the park (he scored on the throw in anyway), and Daniel Harris IV added a solo homer to Santos’ three-run blast.
For Ogden, Sargent finished 4 for 4 with five RBIs. His two-run single in the sixth helped make the score 17-9 and, especially in the Pioneer League, keep the Raptors within shouting distance. But Oakland answered with four in the top of the seventh, capped with a Tremayne Cobb Jr. two-run single, to stretch it back to 21-9.
Ogden used five pitchers as two-way player Kyler Stancato, who hit 2 for 5 at the plate while starting in right field, ate the last three innings on the mound. He allowed five unearned runs on three hits; the Raptors finished the game having tallied five errors.
Oakland used the run support to save arms and tossed two hurlers: starter Luke Short got the win in five innings, allowing six runs on nine hits, and Adam Bogosian took the final four and allowed five runs on seven hits.
The two teams finish the series at 1 p.m. Sunday.
HOME RUN DERBY NIGHT
In conjunction with Major League Baseball as an independent “partner league,” the Raptors hosted their first “Home Run Derby Night in the Pioneer League” after Saturday’s game.
Home Run Derby Night is a season-long game in which players and teams earn points toward winning the competition and cash at the end of the season. Over 13 weeks, teams will compete on Saturdays in head-to-head battles. Fans can also participate online by making predictions and entering sweepstakes for prizes.
On each Saturday, the competition consists of two players from each team in a best-of-three-rounds setup. The first two rounds give each player 2 minutes to hit as many home runs as possible. If the teams split the first two rounds, a tiebreaking third round (of only three swings each) is played.
The Home Run Derby Night competition is separate from the Pioneer League’s Knockout Round derby that decides games tied after nine innings, a tiebreaker format it has pioneered since 2021.
Saturday at Lindquist Field, Oakland pitted third baseman Cameron Bufford and shortstop Tremayne Cobb Jr. against Ogden first baseman/catcher Chris Sargent and outfielder Kyler Stancato.
Bufford took the first round 6-4 over Sargent. In the second round, Cobb launched six home runs. With his time ticking down, it appeared Stancato had forced a tiebreaker round by sending his final two swings over the fence; the first cleared, but the final crack as time expired hit off the top of the right-field wall.
With Cobb and Stancato tied 6-6 in the second round, Oakland was declared the winner one round to zero.
In future Raptors-hosted Home Run Derby Nights this season, some will take place prior to Saturday games and some after. The team will promote those on its social media pages (primarily, fans should check @ogden_raptors on Instagram and Ogden Raptors on Facebook).
