SAN BRUNO, Calif. — With a 6:05 p.m. start time, the Walnut Creek Crawdads’ Tuesday game against the San Francisco Seagulls crept into the bitter Bay Area night. The fans that braved the wind chill — and the final score — were bundled in puffy jackets and blankets. Everyone and everything at Lara Field was stone cold. Everything except for the Crawdads’ bat rack. 

The Crawdads’ offense seemed to thrive in the conditions. The colder it got, the more runs they brought across the plate. Walnut Creek went on an offensive onslaught over the final three frames, scoring 18 runs. 

While the offense stole the show, the pitching made sure that the game was as lopsided as possible. A quartet of Crawdads’ arms iced the Seagulls’ bats, holding them to only four hits and 10 total baserunners.

With both sides of the team putting together the performances that they did, Tuesday night was utter Crawdads domination. Walnut Creek (3-1) marched into enemy territory and didn’t take any prisoners, pummelling San Francisco (1-4) 24-0. 

Here are three takeaways from the victory. 

The offensive struggles didn’t last for long

Over the Crawdads’ first three games — which included two exhibition games — the offense scored just seven runs. Hits weren’t strung together and chances were wasted. The sentiment in the dugout was that the struggles wouldn’t last long, the team just needed some time. 

It was hard to think otherwise, given the level of talent the team has and the success the Crawdads have had in recent years. The only question was how long the wait would be, and the answer was one day. 

The Crawdads have scored over 10 runs in the three games since the slow offensive start to the season. Hits are being followed by hits, players aren’t taking bad results into their next at-bats and chances are being taken advantage of. No game exemplified that more than the Crawdads’ demolition of the Seagulls. 

After being held scoreless throughout the first three innings, the offense started to wake up. Debuting shortstop Jared Mettam led off the fourth inning with a walk and scored after his teammates were able to put the ball in play. His run kick-started a three-run fourth inning and his first hit as a Crawdad drove in two runs in the sixth inning. 

The offense kicked things into high gear for the seventh and eighth. The Crawdads batted around in both innings, first baseman John Youens hit a two-run home run in the seventh and designated hitter Brady Wilson destroyed a ball to left field for a grand slam in the eighth. 

It’s often said that hitting is contagious. If that’s the case, then the Crawdads’ contagious hitting spread like an illness during cold and flu season. Every Crawdads batter reached base safely at least three times against the Seagulls, and as a unit, proved to themselves and everyone else that this kind of offensive production is possible. 

The Aiden White show

Left-handed starter Aiden White put the Crawdads in a position to succeed against the Seagulls. If White had allowed San Francisco to score and put Walnut Creek behind while the offense was still waking up in the early innings of the game, who knows how the game could’ve gone?  

It’s possible that the offense would’ve felt pressed to get going and tried to do too much. Because of White’s brilliant start, though, that’ll remain an unanswered question. 

The rising sophomore tossed four innings of two-hit baseball, striking out six. White had Seagulls fooled with both his fastball and off-speed offerings, getting silly swings and freezing opponents in the box. No San Francisco batter was able to put together solid contact against him after he gave up two hits in the first inning.  

The southpaw did struggle with command at times, walking three in those four innings of work. However, it never affected him as the Seagulls’ bats couldn’t make the necessary contact to drive them in. 

The start was technically White’s first of the season, as the non-CCL exhibition games don’t count toward players’ stats. However, the lefty did start the Crawdads’ second exhibition game against the Alameda Anchors and went 3.2 innings pitched, struck out five and allowed three hits, two walks and a hit batter.  

If White can continue to be a strikeout threat while limiting free passes as the season goes on, he could become a key part of any Crawdads’ success this season and become a contributor on whatever team he lands with out of the transfer portal. 

Bullpen bounce-back

The Crawdads’ bullpen has been incredibly volatile. Prior to Tuesday, there had been standout individual performances like right-hander Kam Croghan on Sunday against the Alameda Merchants, or the lefty duo of Colin Nowaczyk and Bradyn Barnes the day prior, but as a whole, the bullpen hadn’t had a clean day of work. 

That came to an end when Left-hander Max Cohen and right-handers Halen Guerrero and Nathen Nino combined for five innings of two-hit baseball against the Seagulls, ruining any chance of the game being a close one. 

The three were all coming off performances they’d surely like to forget. Guerrero and Nino each gave up two earned runs in two innings of work and Cohen gave up two earned runs in just one inning. 

Instead of letting those performances start a downward spiral, they all bounced back strong. The ability to do that is something that the Crawdads are going to need from their bullpen this year. You’re not always going to have success as a reliever, and the ability to move on and not let one bad outing affect the next is a necessary skill. 

The Crawdads have won with strong bullpens in the past and will need a strong bullpen to win again. These relievers showcasing their mental fortitude and ability on the mound is a great start toward building a successful summer as individuals and as a unit.

By Ethan Ignatovsky