The Walnut Creek Crawdads didn't make it easy, but the Humboldt Crabs battled their way to another series win over the weekend, and increased their lead in the Far West League in the process.
The Crawdads became the first team this year to post a shutout against the Crabs in taking Friday night's game 3-0 behind the arms of Jeffrey Doran, who went seven innings to get the win, and relievers Chris Costanza and Ryan Wertenberger.
Uninterested in being shut out again, the Crabs scored in the first inning on Saturday on an RBI single by Riley Drongesen. Two more runs later in the game proved to be enough for Kyle Swannack, who pitched into the eighth and allowed two runs before handing the ball off to James Barragan for the save in a 3-1 win.
On Sunday, Ryan Wiggins hit a three-run homer as part of a five-run outburst in the seventh inning that erased a 2-0 deficit as the Crabs won the rubber match 5-2. Andrew Nelson gave up two runs in seven innings, improving to 4-0 on the season. Zach Reser pitched the eighth and Jason Hampton came on in the ninth to nail down his fourth save.
Now two games up on the Neptune Beach Pearl, the Crabs host their old friends, the Redding Colt .45s, for a doubleheader on Wednesday, betore closing out the regular season against Fontanetti's A's this weekend.
