DANVILLE, Calif. — Late in the seventh inning of the Walnut Creek Crawdads’ win-or-go-home matchup against the San Luis Obispo Blues in the first round of the CCL Playoffs, right-handed reliever Halen Guerrero was preparing to throw the most important pitch of Walnut Creek’s season so far. 

60-feet, 6-inches away from Guerrero, taking over the left-handed batter’s box with his 6-foot-5 frame, stood the Blues’ hottest hitter, left fielder Andrew Rayment, who was 3-3 with a double. The Crawdads had secured two outs in the inning, but the Blues were knocking on the door with the tying run on third base, and the go-ahead run on second after Guerrero’s 0-0 pitch got away from catcher Zach Justice. 

The Tuesday evening crowd at Monte Vista High School, a mix of Crawdads and Blues supporters, watched on in suspense, knowing that whatever happened next would be a defining moment in the game. Luckily for the Crawdads, Guerrero is no stranger to tense moments and has the know-how to work out of them. 

“That role, I’ve had a lot of experience in,” Guerrero said. “Coming into the game, I want to pick up my teammates, so I try to fill the zone up, let my defense work.” 

That’s exactly what happened. 

Guerrero got Rayment to ground a ball to second baseman Hunter Hirayama, who speared it on a high hop and made the throw to first base for the out, ending the threat. The game would never get that close again. Walnut Creek’s (24-15) offense would explode over the next two innings, scoring five runs, and Guerrero continued to shut down San Luis Obispo (24-17), securing a 10-4 win for his team, advancing it to the second round of the playoffs. 

“Halen was awesome today,” Crawdads head coach Brant Cummings said. “(He) helped us limit the damage in that seventh inning. Instead of them tying the game, we get out of the inning. … In conjunction with Halen’s effort, we played defense. They hit a ground ball, we threw it and played catch and we didn’t give them a lot of outs.” 

Defense in baseball is sometimes something that’s only noticed when it goes wrong, but the Crawdads played near flawless defense Tuesday. The team only committed one error — a throwing error by shortstop Ryley Leininger in the third inning, which didn’t cause any damage — and made some spectacular plays.

Justice threw out two runners trying to steal, including a crucial nab in the eighth inning, when pinch hitter Erik Furness got on base and tried to steal third. Hirayama also put on a show at second base, displaying his range throughout the game. His snag on Rayment’s ground ball was just the cherry on top of an already sound day of defense, which is something the Crawdads lacked prior to their now six-game win streak. 

“I think one of the major differences with us right now is our infield defense has been really good,” Cummings said. 

Hirayama’s grab and throw to get Rayment out was the second of two outs that Guerrero needed to get out of the inning, after entering a tough spot. The righty was inserted into a bases-loaded, one-out situation after fellow right-hander Peter Storjohann struggled to locate the strike zone. Guerrero traded a run for an out on a sacrifice fly, but a bloop single that scored a run and brought Rayment to the plate put his back against the wall. 

Guerrero, of course, was able to end the threat and finish the game, saving arms in the Crawdads’ bullpen in the process. Starting left-handed pitcher Colin Nowaczyk’s ability to go six strong innings also helped in that regard. 

Nowaczyk worked around a walk in the first inning, striking out three and setting the tone for the rest of the game. He allowed eight base runners across his six frames, but nearly every time a Blues batter got on base, he was able to find another gear and strand them. The Blues were only able to score off of Nowaczyk in the sixth inning, when he was emptying the gas tank on his outing.  

A walk and a hit by pitch set the stage for none other than Rayment with two outs. The lefty in the box got the better of the lefty on the mound, flaring a 1-1 pitch the other way into left field, scoring one run. Nowaczyk immediately stopped the bleeding, inducing a groundout to get out of the frame and ending his day on a high note. 

“Our starters lately have been setting us up to win perfectly,” Guerrero said. “As soon as I heard (Nowaczyk) was starting, I knew we were going to have a great chance to win.” 

The Crawdads’ offense instantly carried over momentum from Nowaczyk’s first inning, taking the lead and never giving it back. Designated hitter Ryan Ellis led off the bottom of the first with his fifth double in seven games, and was knocked in on a single to right field off the bat of right fielder Joey Donnelly, the Crawdads’ best hitter throughout the summer, who broke out of a small slump with a 4-5 performance. 

“We were talking about it pregame, it ended up being close, but the goal is to try and make it not close and just jump on (Blues right-handed starter Charlie Royle) and then just run away with it,” Donnelly said. “That was definitely a point of emphasis pregame.” 

While the Blues did make the game a close one for a short stretch, a series of Blues errors and timely hitting over the next five innings gave the Crawdads a total of five runs, which was enough to withstand the comeback attempt. After that, in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings, the lineup put the game out of reach.

First baseman Kam Taylor reignited the offense by launching a no-doubt home run over the right field wall for his third home run of the season. Taylor came up in the eighth as well, nearly hitting his second home run in as many innings after a Donnelly single and a Blues error gave the Crawdads their seventh and eighth runs of the game. Taylor gave a ball a ride out to straightaway center field, where the ball hit off the very top of the elevated fence, and back into the field of play. Taylor had to settle for a two-RBI single. 

Taylor’s performance was one of the best of anyone to put on the Crawdads uniform Tuesday, but the win was truly a team effort. Eight of the nine Crawdads in the starting lineup got at least one hit, with Ellis, Donnelly and Taylor all registering multi-hit games. 

Despite how impressive the explosion was, it wasn’t an outlier. The 10-run performance was the team’s third straight game with at least seven runs scored and their fourth in five games. 

“It’s huge when it’s one through nine, everybody’s dangerous,” Donnelly said, “Everybody’s going to be getting good pitches to hit and we can really complement each other. It’s definitely huge to have the whole lineup clicking.” 

The Crawdads’ offense, as well as the pitching and defense, couldn’t have chosen a better time to get hot. There seems to be no stopping this team, and if no one can figure it out soon, there’s a real chance that the squad could win it all. First, though, they’ll need to win their second-round matchup against the Sonoma Stompers.

The Stompers are a dangerous team, but the Crawdads won the regular season series 5-4 and have had success at Arnold Field, the Stompers’ home stadium. With recent history on their side and the team hot, the Crawdads could very well move on once more. 

“We’ve won the last three times (at Arnold Field),” Cummings said. “That doesn’t guarantee us a win, but it feels better to go into a place with some confidence. That’s how this thing works: confidence breeds success.”

By Ethan Ignatovsky