Oakland baseball’s fall season came to a close this past weekend with the annual Black and Gold series. A fall season that head coach John Musachio described as “the most intense six weeks of the year for players and coaches.”

The fall season for the baseball team is a non-championship segment where the team focuses on strength, speed and skill development. They keep it competitive by scrimmaging at least three times a week. However, there is one scrimmage to end the fall season taken more seriously than any other.

Coach Musachio said the Black and Gold scrimmage is the closest to spring-type pressure they are able to create. The series is a strong tradition in the baseball program where the teams play for bragging rights. A draft takes place among the coaches to create as even teams as possible.

However, they didn’t appear even in Game 1 as the Black team dominated 12-1 with an outstanding pitching performance by senior Nate Lewis. Game 2 proved to be more competitive.

The Gold team headed into the 8th inning with a two-run lead, but had it erased by Connor Fannon’s three-run homer to put the Black team up 8-7. The Gold team, however, countered with a three-run home run of their own in the bottom of the 8th, courtesy of Ian Yetsko.

Andre Sopena led off the 9th inning with a double to left field and was later driven home by a Zach Sterry base hit. Freshman Matt DiLeo followed with a game-tying double to send the game into extra innings. The black team closed out the game in the bottom of the 10th with a ground ball that scored Andre Sopena to end the game with a final score of 11-10 in favor of the Black squad.

The Gold team rallied to take Game 3 of the series 6-2. Joe Buchalski led the way on the mound with two innings pitched and no earned runs, while Ben Hart and Jake Morton both hit RBI doubles.

Black team member Zach Sterry was named MVP of the series. The honor was well deserved considering Sterry batted .727 with two walks throughout the series, including one home run, two doubles and nine RBIs.

The team will now begin individual practices until January 23, 2015. Four weeks before their opening day, the team will resume team practices.

After this successful fall season, both Coach Musachio and senior Robby Enslen feel optimistic about the spring.

“Out of my four years here, this is the best fall that we’ve had as a team,” Enslen said. “I’m looking forward to the spring especially since we play a hard schedule.”

The baseball team opens up their season at Florida State University then head to Los Angeles to play the University of Southern California.

As far as Horizon League games go, Musachio says it will be a tight race.

“The team that does the little things well is going to win,” Musachio said. “Everyone has good pitching, everyone can swing the bats, everyone has good coaching.”

Enslen agreed.

“The Horizon League has great competition for baseball, but with our talent, I think we have a shot at winning,” he said.