DANVILLE, Calif. — The Walnut Creek Crawdads’ offense has seemingly run through utilityman Joey Donnelly. No matter what glove he’s wearing, he’s been a threat in the heart of the Crawdads’ lineup. His impact on the team — a CCL leading .490 batting average and 17 RBIs — is irreplaceable, but on Thursday against the San Francisco Seagulls, the Crawdads had to find a way to win without him. 

The hole created by Donnelly’s absence — which is due to him taking time to visit schools as he searches for the right graduate program to advance his educational and baseball journey — wasn’t an easy one to fill, but good teams have players step up and make absences nearly unnoticeable. Cleanup hitter and catcher Zach Justice was the one who stepped up on this particular occasion. 

Justice earned the four-hole nod after flashing power in his first six games as a Crawdad. He’s been one of just a handful of Crawdads who have showcased power at the team’s home field, Monte Vista High School, due to wind striking down fly balls in recent weeks. However, Thursday was different. The air felt slightly hotter and the American flag beyond the right-center field wall stood relatively still, acting more like a target for baseballs than a waving banner. It was a good day to hit, and Justice proved it, rewarding head coach Brant Cummings for slotting him into the middle of the order. 

He ambushed Seagulls’ right-handed starting pitcher Alan Gaber in his first at-bat, taking a first-pitch center-cut fastball out over the wall in right-center field right by the flagpole, scoring himself and right fielder Ryan Brome, who walked. If he felt any pressure hitting in the meat of the order, it wasn’t apparent. 

“The people in front of me were getting on base,” Justice said. “Everyone was kind of doing their thing. It was a relief.” 

The two-run home run accounted for half of the total runs scored and propelled Walnut Creek (11-5) to a victory over San Francisco (4-15), 4-0. The home run was Justice’s only hit of the day, but the Crawdads did score their third run when he hit into a double play in the third inning and his efforts as a backstop helped the pitching staff continue its zero earned run streak to 29.1 innings pitched. 

“Someone’s got to step up, Zach Justice did it today,” Cummings said. “… He goes opposite field, out into the soccer field and that gets us on the board. That was enough to probably win the game at that point, but one never knows. He was big today, not only as a hitter.” 

Justice displayed the all-around package that helped him become Perfect Game’s No. 1 ranked catcher in Oregon coming out of high school. He backpicked Seagulls’ designated hitter Ethan Johnson when he leaned too far off first base in the fourth inning. Johnson’s teammate, shortstop Thomas Maher, didn’t learn from his mistake and earned a firsthand example in the sixth inning when he was back-picked off second base. 

“I saw a lot of opportunities for free outs,” he said. “They were kind of sleeping on the base path. As long as I can get my pitcher an out, I’m going to do my best to get that.” 

Justice also stole his pitchers’ strikes with elite frame work. Overall, he guided his pitching staff through a nine-strikeout, four-hit and two-walk day at the yard. Catcher is the most demanding and important position on the diamond, and Justice’s outstanding performance behind the dish set up the success for everybody else in a rare, error-free, shutout win. 

“He calls a game which helps us collect outs at home plate,” Cummings said. “His overall presence breeds confidence into the staff. The defensive unit is crisper because now we’re throwing strikes, handling pitches and collecting outs when we need them. It just makes everyone better.” 

Credit also needs to be handed to the five pitchers who combined for nine amazing innings. It all started with left-handed Colin Nowaczyk, who built off yesterday’s start from his former Nebraska teammate, fellow southpaw Aiden White. Nowaczyk, like White, went five strong innings after being used as a reliever by Huskers head coach Will Bolt during the collegiate season. 

In those five innings, he struck out five and only allowed four base runners. Three Seagulls had reached base on hits, with center fielder Ben Coke being the only player who managed to draw four balls from the lefty. The Crawdads have had a massive turnaround in recent days, going from free passes out the wazoo to limiting base runners at a high rate. It’s not a coincidence that when the walks tailed off, the staff was able to limit runs. 

“As a team, you can get through innings without walking people, and good things happen when you limit the freebies,” Nowaczyk said. “It’s a big thing, trying to limit the walks, and good things happen (when you do limit walks) and it showed today.”

For Nowaczyk, the key to that success is having the right mentality. In this case, the mentality is to be aggressive. 

“Just thinking that you’re better than the other hitter and you’re going to attack them, and if they beat you, they beat you.” 

The bullpen took over in the sixth inning to record with right-handers Halen Guerrero and Micah Billings, alongside lefties Sid Polston and Max Cohen, combining for the final 12 outs. The group only allowed two base-runners, and Billings recorded the final three outs in his Walnut Creek debut. 

Billings’ final out, a slow grounder that third baseman Cam Calvillo charged and threw to first to secure the win, also secured three straight wins for the first time since Walnut Creek’s seven-game win streak earlier this month. The team had been middling since the streak was snapped, but a new winning streak starting can raise the team’s confidence levels and turn the page in an ever-turning sport. 

“We’ll see next week, (but) I’m confident we can continue to play well,” Cummings said. “As I’ve said before, one never knows when one thing will go wrong and then a guy loses a little bit of confidence, but we have the right people; you just have to maintain confidence.”