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By Jared Green 

Daily Planet Staff 

It’s rare that a baseball game is over before it starts. But Friday’s game between Berkeley and visiting Richmond was never in doubt, even before the first pitch. 

The Oilers, all 11 of them, piled out of their bus as the ’Jackets were about to take infield practice. They took their time getting ready, taking warmups without a centerfielder. Their starting pitcher didn’t warm up, apparently needing just the seven quick tosses before he threw his first inning. Richmond didn’t even have enough uniforms for their two reserves, and their substitutions included a handing off of the departing player’s jersey to his replacement. 

In the middle of all this chaos, the ’Jackets managed to put together a fine performance, scoring 10 runs in the third inning on their way to an abbreviated 15-0 win. The game lasted just four and a half innings, thanks to the “slaughter rule,” which ends a game after the losing team’s half of the fifth inning if they are down by more than nine runs. Berkeley broke that mark with ease, as Cole Stipovich gave up just one scratch hit in five innings for a shutout. 

“The opposition didn’t show us much today, but we played good baseball,” Berkeley head coach Tim Moellering said. “We got solid pitching and solid defense.” 

The ’Jackets scored three runs in the first inning, then broke the game wide open in the third, as the first nine batters all reached base and eventually scored. They amassed 11 of their 18 hits in the inning, and Richmond helped out with four errors. Symbolic of the combination of Berkeley excellence and Richmond pratfalls was centerfielder Bennie Goldenberg’s Little League-style “homerun.” Goldberg knocked a line drive into left field for a single. But the Richmond outfielder let the ball go through his legs. Goldenberg quickly rounded second base and headed for third. The Oiler relay throw went far over the third baseman’s head, and Goldenberg scored easily. 

“You hope that the other team can play smart and flawless defense so we have to earn everything we get,” Moellering said. “When a team makes errors in a big inning like that, it just opens the floodgates, and we took advantage.” 

With the pressure off, Stipovich proceeded to strike out four of the last six batters he faced, and the game ended before the bottom of the fifth.