ARCATA (July 20, 2015) — A funny thing about baseball: Some days everything goes your way; other days nothing does.
The Crabs’ series against the Redding Colt 45s was a perfect example of all-or-nothing baseball, as the Crabs routed the visiting 45s 8-1 on Friday, July 17 and 17-1 on Saturday the 18th to push their winning streak to 10 games, then dropped Sunday’s finale 8-2 in a game that seemed destined to go Redding’s way from the start.
In the first inning, Cooper Brunner’s diving attempt to snag a sinking liner off the bat of Kyle Hoffman came up short, and the ball skipped by him for an RBI-triple. Hoffman scored on the play when the throw to third sailed out of play near the Crabs dugout, putting the home team in an early 3-0 hole.
In the second, Bobby Schuman hit what appeared to be his first homer of the season off the Pepsi ad under the scoreboard where the fence dips down, but the men in blue ruled it had bounced off the yellow piping atop the fence and hadn’t actually left the yard.
Schuman would score two batters later, but it was just one of the signs that maybe it wasn’t their day. Another came a short time later when a Crabs player shot a ball off the left field wall right around the foul pole, and was initially ruled to be fair and a double, but after a discussion was overturned, likely correctly.
In reality though, it wasn’t just the breaks on this day, at least not in the eyes of manager Tyson Fisher.
“I think that the tempo was completely different than (Saturday) night, that’s a big aspect for this team,” He said. ”We want the pace of the game to be quick, and I think that played a part (Sunday). We seemed a little lazy, it was a lazy Sunday, and offensively we just weren’t very good.”
But, he added, “it’s hard to get down on this group when we just rattled off 10 in a row. The main message is, ‘hey we gotta start a new one.’”
And he’s right. Clunkers happen, but they shouldn’t make one forget how dominant the team had been during the win streak. As alluded to earlier, the Crabs had outscored the 45s 25-2 in the first two games of the series.
On Friday night, Drew Weston did what Drew Weston has been doing all summer, twirling a complete game to complement an offense that pounded out 13 hits, seven of which came from the top three in the batting order.
Not to be outdone by Weston, Justin Mullins struck out 11 in seven innings on Saturday, allowing only a first-inning home run. And the offense outdid itself, to the tune of 17 runs on 16 hits.
Earlier in the week, the Crabs had swept a two-game series against Bercovich Baseball. On Tuesday, July 14, Humboldt put up two separate 8-spots as they set the season high-water mark for runs in a 22-8 win. Blake Edmonson hit a three-run homer and Dillon Kelley had four RBIs to lead the offense.
Edmonson homered again on Wednesday the 15th as part of a four-hit night. Brunner, Brad Pluschkell and Allen Smoot – who is currently riding a 22-game hitting streak – each delivered two hits as the Crabs won 13-4.
So obviously, there’s not a lot to be down about after one loss, given how many good things preceded it. And another 10-game winning streak would just about get them to Fisher’s preseason goal of less than 10 losses.
PRESS:
• Sunday's game story from the local newspaper, click here.
• KIEM News Ch. 3 Crabs Corner, click here.
Humboldt Invitational Tournament: July 30-Aug 2 | The Crabs take on the Solano Mudcats, the Pacific Capitalist, and the Auburn Wildcats in a round robin tournament for bragging rights. Season passes and leftover ten strip tickets will be honored for the tournament. One ticket gets you into both games for the day. Get a Crabs stamp at the front gate to go in and out. Click here for schedule.
