by Kevin Wyart
Humboldt Crabs Baseball

June 3, 2016

Arcata, CA – Summer hasn’t even officially arrived yet, but the Crabs brought the heat to the visiting South Bay Sliders, defeating them 7-1 at the Arcata Ballpark on Friday evening.

Crabs starting pitcher Jason Alexander brought his flamethrower up from Menlo College, allowing only one run on two hits, while striking out 6 and only walking one in 5 innings of work.

The Crabs bats were equally as hot, as they exploded for 7 runs, including two home runs in the 4th inning. The first came with no out and one on, after Austin White led off the inning with a single, as Mason Cerrillo promptly launched a pitch deep over the right field wall to extend the crabs lead to 6-0.

Two batters later with one out, Jayson Newman said hello with one of his own, clearing the right field fence and giving the Crabs their seventh and final run of the night.

Humboldt also scored two runs each in the second and third innings with the help of four Sliders errors.

For South Bay, they got their only run in the fifth inning off an RBI groundout by Andrew Shults. The rest of their night belonged to Jason Alexander and the Crabs relief corps.

For Alexander, much of his success Friday night came from his hard fastball, which he credited for allowing him to set the tone.

“My fastball is the main pitch I like to use to be aggressive in the strikezone,” Alexander said “I felt I was successful in using it to get ahead of batters.”

In addition to his fastball, the Windsor, Calif. native displayed an effective sinker, aimed at forcing the opposition to hit the ball on the ground. The Sliders didn’t hit a ball in the air until the fifth inning.

“My sinker is definitely my main secondary pitch,” Alexander said “I was happy with it and all the ground balls I got.”

When asked about his approach in pitching to wood bats, as opposed to aluminum ones, he said he likes to pitch inside more to right handers, and the results were something anyone in the crowd would notice, three broken bats by Sliders hitters.

For the Crabs, this win puts them on a positive start to their season, and they now have more of a feel for what they have going into Saturday’s second game and beyond. The Sliders fall to 1-4 on the summer. Both teams will meet again on Saturday and Sunday, with the Saturday first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m.

CRABS MEDIA

• Watch Crabs Corner on News Ch. 3
• Watch the games live on the Crabs YouTube Channel
• Listen to the games live on the radio stream on KGOE 1480AM
• Read the game stories in the daily newspaper, the Times-Standard
• Follow the Crabs on TwitterInstagram and Facebook

 

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