ARCATA (Aug. 7) — After the Humboldt Crabs captured the first-ever Far West League Championship on Sunday, the team gave out its traditional post-season awards, and leading the way was their leadoff man, Ivory Thomas, who was named the Team MVP.
"We've got a lot of good players on the team, some big name guys, so I'm pretty honored to be named MVP," said Thomas, who proved his MVP worth with two home runs on Sunday to push the team toward the title.
The two home runs gave him a team-best five on the summer, and Thomas also finished tied David Del Grande for the team lead with a .340 average, and always seemed to be on base.
Speaking of Del Grande, he was named the team Offensive Player of the Year, thanks to the aforementioned average. Del Grande's 54 hits were by far tops on the team, a good 15 more than the next best mark.
The Defensive Player of the Year was Austin Prott, who was a veritable Hoover at first base, both in balls hit at him by opponents and thrown at him by teammates.
The Most Valuable Pitcher award, to the surprise of no one, went to Aaron West, whose numbers bordered on absurd: 7-0, 0.17 ERA, 83 strikeouts and just 11 walks over 54 innings.
Jason Mahood received the Kevin Morsching/Scott Heinig Memorial Award as the team's most inspirational player. He was a hard-nosed player on the field, and a solid leader off of it.
After presenting the awards, Manager Matt Nutter made a point of thanking John Austin and Zach O'Hanen, two outgoing seniors who pitched for the Crabs for three seasons. Their contributions to the Crabs organization will be missed.
