Chukars spend Thursday traveling to Oakland, where 1 more win would make them champs

OAKLAND, Calif. — Thursday’s travel day will benefit the Chukars for several reasons during their Pioneer Baseball League postseason run.

Closer Nicolo Pinazzi gets an extra day to recharge the battery after throwing 39 pitches to save Game 1; Benjamin Rosengard, Simon Baumgardt and Spencer Rich, who have seen limited action over the past month due to injury, have a chance to rest and recover; and starters Gary Grosjean, Shane Spencer and Nathan Hemmerling will enjoy an added day of rest between starts.

But a team as hot as the Chukars doesn’t always want a day off.

Over the past week, Idaho Falls has taken four of five games from the teams with the two best records in the Pioneer Baseball League — Missoula and Oakland. And they have done it while outscoring their opponents 57-39.

Whether the rest helps or hinders, when they get to Oakland and Raimondi Park, the Chukars will need just one more win over the Ballers to claim their first league championships since 2019.

Wednesday’s Game 2 hero, Kirkland Banks, said the team’s focus on winning the next game remains steadfast.

“We just gotta, kinda, stay the course. There’s going to be a big crowd out there. We’ve just gotta stay within ourselves, stay playing for each other,” Banks said after Wednesday night’s win. “At the end of the day, just play Chukars ball, which we’ve been doing the past couple weeks. If we keep doing that … we should handle business.”

Manager Troy Percival said earlier that he knew this team was capable of making the playoffs. What he wasn’t sure about though, was whether it was mature enough to be a champion.

One week later, the skipper said he has a great deal of maturation through the team’s first five playoff games.

“We don’t panic when things aren’t going our way,” Percival said of his team. “We keep going up and taking our at-bats the way we’re supposed to. Defense, if they make an error they come right back and make a great play.”

Prior to their recent run of success, primarily in the playoffs, the Chukars “had a tendency to panic,” Percival added. Now they understand that the offense is capable of scoring, and that is the ultimate equalizer when it comes to remaining even-keel.

Even with this growth in maturity, and a white-hot offense, Percival knows there is still work to be done.

“I know we have the talent, we have the players to go out and finish this thing off,” he said. “But I will not discount any team being managed by (Ballers manager) Aaron (Miles), they will fight to the end.”

The Idaho Falls skipper went on to note that the Ballers, who finished the regular season with a league-best 73-23 record — better than the second-place Missoula PaddleHeads (64-32) by nine games — have put together numerous three-game winning streaks this season.

“I’m not counting my chickens because they’re really tough at home,” Percival said of the Ballers. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

After being put in the position to take the series by its offense, Percival, a former Big League pitcher, said that finishing the job will be up to the arms.

“Now, the pitching is going to have to get it done,” he said.

That is because Oakland, which sits just 42 feet above sea level, is not as hitter-friendly an atmosphere as the rest of the parks in the PBL.

Even with a short porch in left-center and down the right-field line, Percival said, Raimondi Park will take away more than it gives. The bigger issue both teams — but the Chukars more so — will have to contend with is the increased effectiveness of pitches.

Lower elevation means heavier air, meaning less ball flight but also more movement created by pitching spin rates.

“The pitches you’re going to see are going to move a lot more,” Percival said. “You’re going to go down there and you’re probably going to see a higher strikeout count than we’re used to.”

Chukars hitters, Percival continued, will have to be more patient, and show that maturity when they hit a ball solid only to see it caught by an outfielder instead of a fan.

Banks said that he and his teammates are aware of the circumstances they will be playing in, and understand that the assignment will be to continue making solid contact and don’t put any added pressure on themselves.

If the remaining three, if necessary, games are to be pitching duels, Percival and the Chukars have their best horses lined up.

Ace Gary Grosjean was among league leaders in wins and strikeouts during the regular season. He will get the ball in search of a sweep Friday. Nathan Hemmerling and Shane Spencer, who pitched 7 dominant frames in Missoula on Sunday and has been rock-solid during his short Chukar tenure, await their call should the series continue.

“I’ll go against anybody at any time with Grosjean, Spencer and Hemmerling, but they’ve got three guys who are no joke coming at us,” Percival said.

The series resumes Friday at 7:35 p.m. MDT.