Oakland Ballers Make Playoffs in Inaugural Season

Jason Burke | Sep 7, 2024

Josh Leslie of the Oakland Ballers points to the crowd / Oakland Ballers

The Oakland Ballers are headed to the postseason in their inaugural season following a 4-3 win on Friday on the road over the Yolo High Wheelers. The two teams have played 34 games against one another this season, with two more set for the regular season, and you may be able to guess who the Ballers will face in the first round of the postseason.

The Ballers and High Wheelers will begin their three game series with Oakland on the road in Davis, playing on Tuesday, September 10. The second game will be played at Raimondi Park in Oakland on Thursday, September 12, with tickets going on sale on Saturday September 7 at 11 a.m. There is a good chance that those tickets will go fast, given that Raimondi fits 4,000 fans.

If there is a third game in the playoff series, the location will be decided in the next two days of the regular season, with Oakland needing one win to secure the top seed in the second half, and homefield advantage in the series.

The winner of the playoff series between the High Wheelers and Ballers next week will go on to face the winner of the first-half matchup between the Missoula Paddleheads and the Glacier Range Riders. Missoula has the best record in the Pioneer League this season at 61-33, with the Ballers close behind at 57-37. The High Wheelers have the fourth-best overall record at 52-40, while the Range Riders are at exactly .500 (47-47) entering the final weekend of the regular season. They went 29-19 in the first half, which earned them a spot in the PL postseason.

Over the first 34 games that the Ballers and High Wheelers have played, Oakland holds a slight edge with two to play, going 18-16 against their biggest rival. This is a rivalry that began in May when both teams entered the league, and is a good-natured one since the co-founders of the Ballers are also the co-founders of the Yolo squad.

Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel, the duo behind both teams, wanted to add a new team to the league in Oakland following the announcement of the A's relocation, but in order for that to happen, they needed to add a second club so that the PL would have an even number of teams. So they launched both the Ballers and High Wheelers, and both are in the playoffs. One of those teams will be playing for the Pioneer League championship in their inuagural season.