[Westheim]

2026 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (94-68) @ Oklahoma City Thunder (93-69)

Game 3 – Dan Delgadillo (12-7, 2.76 ERA) vs. Mike Cavallin (14-11, 3.45 ERA)

Despite the gross incompetence displayed by almost all batters in the first two games, there was only one lineup change for Portland. Terry Kopp was out, Cookie Carmona was in, with Gomez moving over to rightfield.

POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – RF Gomez – 1B Harenberg – CF Jamieson – C O'Dell – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona –P Delgadillo
OCT: 3B L. Rivera – RF Sagredo – 1B M. Rucker – SS Serrato – LF de Santiago – C Burgess – CF Millan – 2B Ts'ai – P Cavallin

Spencer and Gomez hit singles to go to the corners, but Kevin Harenberg spanked the ball at Ts'ai for an easy double play in the top of the first, and the disappointment continued unabated after 45 uneasy hours. Then it was Jamieson and Nunley to go to the corners with one out in the second inning, bringing up Cookie Carmona, who was .309 batter in the postseason, but popped out to short uselessly and left Yusneldan to fend for himself, which went better than anybody would have dared to hope. Dan lined a single over the head of a helpless Serrato, and it gave Portland the 1-0 lead. Ramos flew out to Millan to end the inning.

Then there was a rain shower that came out of nowhere in the bottom 2nd when Delgadillo had thrown only 14 pitches. The game went to an hour-long delay, and how was that gonna mess with him? If anything, he should cope better than Cavallin, who had already thrown 41 pitches. No ill effects were to be observed in the bottom 2nd yet.

Top 3rd, Spencer hit a leadoff single to left, breaking an 0-for-9 trip to begin the CLCS, which was aggravating timing for a player who had finished second in the batting title race. Gomez dropped a 3-1 pitch into shallow center for a single, and now would be a snuff time for Harenberg to do something nasty. Nah, he popped out. Jamieson lined a ball to left, right at Rivera, for the second out, but Cavallin was not sharp. He walked O'Dell to load the bases, then faced Nunley, who flew to right on a 1-1 pitch. Sagredo hustled in to try and get it on the fly, but had to pull up at the last moment because he wasn't going to get it. Nunley had a single, Spencer scored, and because Sagredo was hit in the knee before he could play the ball cleanly, Gomez was windmilled around as well to up the score to 3-0. Cookie singled to reload the bases, but Delgadillo struck out on a nasty 3-2 breaking pitch to end the inning.

Credit to Cavallin; he stuck it out on the mound and even hit a single off Delgadillo in the bottom 5th, although at that point the Coons had the clear upper hand in the game. While Dan was throwing a few clunkers here and there, Gomez had a field day in right and vacuumed up everything even remotely hit to his zip code, while the Coons had added a run on 2-out singles by Gomez, Harenberg, and Jamieson in the fourth, then another one on a Delgadillo RBI double in the fifth. With Delgadillo holding the Thunder shut out and on three hits through five, the Coons were up 5-0 with a dozen outs to get.

The goal remained to try and get at least three more, better six more from Delgadillo, who was on 65 pitches when he faced Sagredo to begin the bottom 6th… and nicked him. Rucker struck out, but Serrato singled to right. With Sagredo bidding for third base, Gomez fired a throw there, but late, and Serrato advanced as well on the play, giving Oklahoma a pair in scoring position with one out. De Santiago came up and grounded a 3-2 pitch back at Delgadillo, who played it to first after the runners shied back right away. That brought up the .143 righty bat of Burgess, and we were confident in Yusneldan to nip him; he popped out to Spencer, ending the inning. He then retired the Thunder in order in the bottom 7th, getting fed another batter one by one, but we would then call it a day on him after 89 rain-disturbed pitches.

His spot was also up to begin the top 8th against Jose Vigil. Justin Gerace pinch-hit for him and was 0-2 with 2 K in previous PH appearances in the series, but now laced a double into the gap. Vigil got chopped up short order then. Ramos walked, the runners pulled off a double steal, and Spencer brought in a run with a sac fly. Gomez hit an RBI triple, Harenberg an RBI single, and it was 8-0 when the inning fizzled out. The additional runs allowed the Coons to go to the squishy end of the bullpen without major concerns, and in fact Josh Boles and Alvin Smith ended the game without allowing a run.

Raccoons 8, Thunder 0 – Raccoons lead series 2-1

Gomez 4-5, 3B, RBI; Harenberg 2-5, RBI; Nunley 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Bullock (PH) 1-1; Gerace (PH) 1-2, 2B; Delgadillo 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (1-0) and 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI;

After hardly showing up for two games in Portland, the offense now nailed out 16 base hits, most of them on the poor Cavallin. Now, if they could squeeze out a win against the perceived weakest link Chris Wickham, that would bring up Palomares again with the Thunder with their backs to the wall…

Doesn't it always play out so nicely in your head …?

Game 4 – Rin Nomura (9-5, 2.75 ERA) vs. Chris Wickham (6-4, 4.69 ERA)

The Raccoons stuck to the Game 3 lineup for now.

POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – RF Gomez – 1B Harenberg – CF Jamieson – C O'Dell – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona –P Nomura
OCT: 3B L. Rivera – SS Serrato – CF Rummelhart – C Burgess – 1B J. Elliott – RF Sagredo – 2B Ts'ai – LF Millan – P Wickham

The Coons sure saw the ball well against Wickham in the opening inning. Ramos, Spencer, and Gomez all hit the ball hard, but only Spencer and Gomez had it fall in for singles. Harenberg flew out to Millan before walks to Jamieson and O'Dell forced in a run. Nunley ripped a liner that ended up in Elliott's glove to end the inning.

Too bad that Nomura came up completely unhinged. Rivera reached on a single, Serrato walked, the runners advanced on Rummelhart's groundout, and while Burgess struck out, Nomura put the Thunder up 2-1 with a wild pitch and a 2-out single hit by Elliott, THEN walked Sagredo before striking out Ts'ai.

Both pitchers then singled off another in the second inning, and both came around to score. Spencer and Gomez hit 2-out singles to get Nomura in, but Harenberg kept failing us in big spots badly. Bottom 2nd, Wickham's single was followed by a Rivera single, and with two outs Brian Rummelhart rumbled a 3-run homer out of centerfield. LIKE I HADN'T SEEN THAT COMING!!

Depressingly, Nomura hit another single in the fourth inning, but Wickham struck out both Ramos and Spencer to keep the Coons distant at 5-2. Rafael Gomez' leadoff jack in the fifth was good for a 5-3 score, however, and Wickham still gave up more loud contact. O'Dell hit a 2-out triple in the inning, but Nunley then grounded to short… except that Serrato threw that one away for a run-scoring error. The Thunder walked Cookie intentionally in this spot, which made it bedtime for Nomura. Gerace batted for him, but grounded out to Rivera to keep the Coons 5-4 behind.

The Raccoons went on to get some mileage out of Kyle Anderson at this point. He had two clean innings, then stumbled in the bottom 7th with a 2-out double by Serrato, after which he threw a wild pitch and surrendered the run on a Rummelhart single. SEE? SEE?? I KNEW IT. The Coons remained wildly not a threat, were retired in order by Arturo Arellano in the eighth, then faced Corkum again in the ninth inning. Spencer struck out. Gomez struck out. Harenberg singled to center to extend the suffering unnecessarily, although this brought up Jamieson, who had found Corkum's secret button in Game 1 already. But once in a series was enough, the Thunder declared. Corkum struck him out to even the series.

Thunder 6, Raccoons 4 – series tied 2-2

Spencer 2-5; Gomez 3-4, HR, 2 RBI;

This was our 10th playoff loss against the Thunder, ever, making them the first team that we lost double digits against in October ball.

The offense is a total joke. Harenberg is batting .222, all singles. Spencer .176, Jamieson .188, Nunley .176. Worse yet, Ramos is batting .118, and Terry Kopp sits at zip. The madly raking Gomez aside (.563/.588/1.000), nobody was hitting the ball anywhere nice. The next closest OPS was Jamieson's at .691.

I am having terrible dreams.

Game 5 – Rico Gutierrez (16-5, 3.48 ERA) vs. Andy Palomares (14-12, 3.33 ERA)

Out of their damn wits, the Coons would try Tovias again, also Gerace in the spare outfield spot since they were now facing the right-hander again, but Game 6 could well see Stalker in the lineup and Spencer in leftfield. Or maybe Spencer would be shot by then for daring to bat under .200. Same for … most of the team!

POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – RF Gomez – 1B Harenberg – CF Jamieson – 3B Nunley – LF Gerace – C Tovias – P Gutierrez
OCT: 3B L. Rivera – SS Serrato – CF Rummelhart – C Burgess – 1B J. Elliott – RF Sagredo – 2B Ts'ai – LF Millan – P Palomares

The game began with Ramos flying out on a 3-1 pitch causing me to bite into my fist right away, especially with the next three batters churning out singles to load the bases, when that already could have been a run had Ramos held out for a free pass. Jamieson OBVIOUSLY hit into a double play, and nobody scored… The team also wasted a leadoff double by Matt Nunley in the second inning.

Well the plan was anyway for Rico to toss a shutout and hope for a few errors and wild pitches. Rummelhart hit a single in the first, but was alone on base for the Thunder, but I had always known he'd kill us. The chances weren't that bad, because outside of Rummelhart, Rivera, and Serrato the Thunder didn't get anything cobbled together, either. From the #5 hitter on down, their entire lineup batted UNDER .100! And the Coons still couldn't get them subdued.

Except for Rafael Gomez, who raised his average to .611 in the third inning with a solo homer to left, bringing home himself (and nobody else, as Ramos had flown out on another 3-1 pitch) for the first tally in the contest. The Thunder didn't lean back that easily, though. Rummelhart (…!) and Burgess found creases on the infield to open the bottom 4th with singles off Rico, went to the corners, and they tied the score on Elliott's grounder to short that ended up a 6-4-3 double play, but put the game even at 1-1.

Top 5th, Tovias worked a leadoff walk for a nice change. Rico bunted him over, after which Ramos popped out on his third 3-ball count of the game. ALBERTO, I SWEAR …!!! Before I could unleash some terrible curses, Jarod Spencer swiftly singled to left-center to bring home the runner and the tie was broken again, 2-1 Coons. Spencer stole second, but Gomez struck out now.

Rico retired the first two, Ts'ai and Millan in the bottom 5th before he yielded a 2-out double to Palomares, which was worrisome and wrong on so many levels. Rivera flew out to Gomez, though. On to the sixth, Harenberg finally found the XBH bag of base hits with a leadoff double to left-center. That one also came on a 3-1 pitch, but you generally only get yelled at if you fail. Jamieson hit a bloop that fell into shallow center, but kept Harenberg from scoring because Rummelhart got really, really close. Runners were on the corners for Nunley and my heart was burning for another good-sized base hit. Nunley got nothing to hit, took ball four, and the bags were loaded for Gerace, the living strikeout with remarkable power. Do-or-die at-bat in not exactly a do-or-die spot, but the extra runs would be neat to have. We did not pinch-hit for him (and who would have pinch-hit for him after all…?) and he struck out. Tovias struck out. Gutierrez struck out.

Despair.

Rummelhart had another single in the bottom 6th, but his surroundings kept failing him, too as Rico kept his claws on a 2-1 lead in this pivotal Game 5.

Was Kevin Harenberg warming up? After an eventless seventh inning, he chucked another leadoff double the other way, and it was IMPERATIVE for the Raccoons to get the insurance run home. After Jamieson walked, the Thunder sent Arellano, who was a right-hander. Nunley though was the key at-bat here and he grounded to Ts'ai for a double play.

Dagger ---- > Soul.

Okay, stop the fudge here. Gerace was called back from the on-deck circle. Terry Kopp came out to bat with Harenberg at third and two outs. Terry, we need you to give it all you ****in' got. When the count ran full, Terry ripped a 3-2 to deep left. Millan raced for it – IN VAIN, IT'S OUTTA HERE!!!! OH MY GOD, TERRY KOPP!!!

When I stopped screaming like a crazed maniac, Rico had already served the Thunder in the bottom 8th. Ramos then led off the ninth with a double to center after going 0-for-a-million in this game. The Coons stranded him, which surprised nobody at all, but we had a 4-1 edge, Rico had been amazing, and the Coons now unfurled Jonathan Snyder after removing the cob webs, as he was the last Critter to see action in the series. Hopefully there was no rust. Rummelhart grounded out. Burgess singled. But Elliott spanked a ball at Spencer, and the 4-6-3 sent the Coons back to Portland with the match ball chance in Game 6.

Raccoons 4, Thunder 1 – Raccoons lead series 3-2

Spencer 2-5, RBI; Gomez 2-5, HR, RBI; Harenberg 3-5, 2 2B; Kopp (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Gutierrez 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (1-0);