SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — When the gates opened at Sinsheimer Park and the San Luis Obispo Blues faithful rushed to their seats on a sunny Saturday afternoon, they were getting ready to watch the most potent offense in the CCL, the Walnut Creek Crawdads, take on their Blues. 

The Crawdads entered the day having scored more runs (170) than any other team in the league, and the Blues sat in the middle of the pack with 117. The game wasn’t expected to be a pitcher’s duel, yet one run accounted for all the offense. 

The run came early in the matchup. Crawdads’ right-handed starter George Zaharias shut down the Blues in the first inning, but the second was a bit of a different story. The frame started with a double down the left field line, and a softly hit ball found its way through the middle of the diamond and into center field for a single, scoring the double. 

Walnut Creek (14-8) was able to hold San Luis Obispo (13-11) hitless for the five innings that followed, but the two hits caused enough damage for the Blues to beat the Crawdads 1-0. At the time, the two hits seemed inconspicuous enough, even if they scored a run. They appeared to be the start of an offensive day at the park, not the start and the end. 

“Not a chance,” Crawdads head coach Brant Cummings said when asked if he thought that the second inning run was going to account for all the offense. “I thought we had a few chances to score today. … I don’t think there’s any formula other than we’ve got to find a way to hit the ball where a guy can’t catch it. There might have been one or two at-bats (where) I thought we chased bad pitches, but overall, they pitched really well.” 

The offense was stymied by the duo of right-handed starter Ryan Featherston, who went six strong innings, and left-handed reliever Riley Marccote, who finished the job. Featherston allowed six baserunners in his six innings of work, but only allowed a runner to get as far as third base once.  

He also never allowed more than two runners on base at a time, and he flashed his stuff when needed. The right-hander sent six Crawdads back to the bench in strikeout fashion. 

“(Fatherston’s) stuff is good,” Cummings said. “But his ability to throw a fastball, then throw a breaking ball on the corner and throw a change-up, he mixed his pitches very well.” 

The only Crawdad to get two hits off Featherston was catcher Zach Justice, who was teammates and roommates with the righty for two years at Oregon. Before the game, Justice expressed his excitement about facing his friend and just hoped to hit the ball hard off of him. 

Neither of Justice’s hits ended up being particularly hard — the first being a bloop single that fell in center field and the second being a ball that snuck its way through the left side — but in the end, they counted the same as screamers. 

“It felt like I had an advantage because I’ve caught him 1,000 times, but it’s fun,” Justice said. “(I) couldn’t stop laughing, but it was awesome and I got two hits off him, I’m pretty happy about that. … He’s probably going to have to buy me dinner tonight.” 

Marccote didn’t have the same strikeout stuff that Featherston had — only striking out one Crawdad in three innings — but was effective nonetheless. The southpaw only allowed one base runner, which came on a hit-by-pitch. 

The Crawdads’ bullpen was able to match him, tossing six scoreless frames of two-hit baseball and allowing just five baserunners in total. Unfortunately for the Crawdads, it didn’t matter as their offense never gave them the lead. The bullpen was just trying to prevent the Blues’ lead from getting any bigger. 

“It’s nice to have a little bit of cushion behind you,” right-handed reliever Brady Wilson said. “At the same time, (not having that cushion) gives you that edge to make sure you’re keeping your team in the game.” 

Wilson, who also plays third base and designated hitter for Walnut Creek, isn’t worried about the offense after one bad performance. After all, it’s only the second time all season that the offense has been shutout. The team has a chance to win the second game of the series against San Luis Obispo and make the four-hour bus ride worth it. 

“We don’t play a lot of bangers like this, the one-zero or two-zero games, so it’s exciting to be in a cool game like this,” Wilson said. “But also, we want to come out on top, so we’ll get it back tomorrow.

“(We) just got to stick to our process. Baseball’s a game of failure. We’re doing everything we can to win out here every day, but it’s hard sometimes because this sport is so little rewarding to us. It’s coming out here every day, putting the same hard work in and giving our best effort.”

By Ethan Ignatovsky