The Long Beach Coast<\/a> (31-8), one of the Pioneer League\u2019s four new teams this season, swept reigning champion Oakland (16-23) in a three-game series Tuesday through Thursday.<\/p>\nWith a 1\u00bd-game lead over Billings for first place, Long Beach\u2019s magic number for a playoff spot \u2013 via a top-two finish in the first half of the season \u2013 stands at three with eight games remaining.<\/p>\n
Left-hander Garrett VanDeventer cemented the Coast\u2019s latest win with the franchise\u2019s first complete game, surrendering one run.<\/p>\n
VanDeventer pitched more than 100 innings at Jackson State in 2024 before spending the summer of 2024 and 2025 at Idaho Falls, where Long Beach manager Troy Percival helmed before making the move to Southern California.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a real uphill battle,\u201d VanDeventer said Thursday. \u201cThis was my chance to really start pitching like myself again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The southpaw, who said his career has been marred by injury over the past couple of years, opened 2026 in the unaffiliated Pecos League before signing with Long Beach on June 6 and reuniting with Percival.<\/p>\n
In the top of the ninth Thursday, the manager went out to the mound, but left his starter in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just him telling me, \u2018This is your game,\u2019\u201d VanDeventer said.<\/p>\n
While VanDeventer surrendered nine hits and only struck out one, he needed just 83 pitches and induced five of the 11 double plays Long Beach turned against Oakland over the three games.<\/p>\n
It seems Percival, a four-time All-Star with the Angels, has been the perfect fit for Long Beach\u2019s new professional squad. The Moreno Valley High graduate, and a former player and coach for UC Riverside, spent the past two seasons leading the Chukars.<\/p>\n
VanDeventer is far from the only player to follow Percival from Idaho Falls to Long Beach.<\/p>\n
Right-hander Gary Grosjean spent the past two summers with the 2002 World Series champion after a season at Cal State Bakersfield. Though the decision to pitch in the Australian Baseball League last winter overworked Grosjean, he said Percival\u2019s understanding nature and experience have helped him tremendously during his recovery and professional career.<\/p>\n
\u201cPercy, in my opinion, knows his players better than any other manager in this organization,\u201d Grosjean said. \u201cHe knows when we need days off, he knows when we need to ramp it up, when we need to be pushed. \u2026 It\u2019s just a very healthy relationship with every player and every coach or manager.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even right-hander Cole Percival is back with his dad \u2013 having previously played for him at UCR \u2013 after getting traded to the Coast on June 26 for a player to be named later.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know that he\u2019s the son,\u201d right-hander Nathan Hemmerling said on Thursday after starting Tuesday. \u201cThey look alike. \u2026 It\u2019s pretty cool. I mean, if I could play for my dad, that\u2019d be sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cole Percival picked up his second save in as many appearances for the team on Wednesday, preserving an 8-7 victory in a game the Coast once led 8-2.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just pitchers either. Leadoff man and left fielder Eddy Pelc followed Troy Percival from Idaho Falls to Long Beach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re (the coaches) like older brothers or just like another teammate,\u201d Pelc said. \u201cThey know so much, and they\u2019re so willing to help us and coach us. It\u2019s really nice having guys with that pedigree.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Huntington Beach local turned 25 while just a short drive from his hometown on Tuesday \u2013 and celebrated with his family the previous weekend. Despite an 0-for-3 performance in the series opener, catcher Johnny Pappas made sure to send his teammate home happy, hitting a walk-off sacrifice fly for an 8-7 win in a game the team once trailed by five runs.<\/p>\n
Troy Glaus, the 2002 World Series MVP who played alongside Percival with the Angels, serves as the Coast\u2019s third base coach. The Southern California local is back in the professional ranks after spending the last few years briefly coaching Buchanan High School, coaching in the USA Baseball National Team Development Program and even appearing with the Savannah Bananas.<\/p>\n
While third baseman Dylan Lina wasn\u2019t reuniting with Percival or Glaus, he was returning to Blair Field. Lina spent the 2025 and 2026 seasons with Long Beach State, but he wasn\u2019t on a team for the summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came out here to just take BP (batting practice),\u201d Lina said. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know I was going to join the team. But after BP, they offered me a contract, got my physicals and I came out for the game. That was kind of crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Percival called Lina to come out for batting practice, and signed him just hours before first pitch Wednesday. Lina was manning the hot corner that evening \u2013 adjusting to his new team and league on the fly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my first time (playing with a ball-strike challenge system),\u201d Lina said. \u201cIt was kind of confusing. I was asking the umpire questions. So it\u2019s a lot different than college. Even the pitch clock \u2013\u00a0here it\u2019s 15 seconds and in college it\u2019s 20.\u201d<\/p>\n
Life in the MLB partner league isn\u2019t always glamorous, and every player is hoping to get picked up by an MLB organization as soon as possible, but the ragtag, ever-fluid roster doesn\u2019t lack camaraderie.<\/p>\n
Long Beach turned all of those double plays in a series in which it started a different infield quartet in each game.<\/p>\n
The Coast have celebrations for singles and doubles and a giant blue chain they award to hitters after a home run.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a long way from MLB, but Blair Field \u2013 even in the spots without grass \u2013 remains filled with dreams.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, I just spent $600 on bats, I just bought $90 shoes,\u201d Alex Bardowell, the father of right fielder Matthew Bardowell, said on Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s their dream to play this far, and you want your kid to succeed. \u2026 You want to see their dreams come as far as they can take them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long Beach Coast starting pitcher Garrett VanDeventer is showered by Gatorade during a postgame interview after he pitched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2135,7,131,137,30782,1334,143,145,144,127,136],"class_list":["post-385562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-baseball","tag-california","tag-long-beach","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-minor-league-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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