SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After being held scoreless by the San Luis Obispo Blues for 16 straight innings, the Walnut Creek Crawdads’ offense was finally waking up late in the two teams’ Sunday afternoon matchup.

Crawdads’ leadoff man and center fielder, Trey Johnson, led off the eighth inning with a perfectly placed bloop single into center field, the lineup’s fourth hit of the night. An error and a walk put shortstop Jared Mettam and right fielder Joey Donnelly on base and cleanup hitter and catcher Brandon Clizbe in the batter’s box with an opportunity to do damage.

Clizbe grounded out to shortstop but scored a run in the process. The Crawdads had finally scratched through, and the dangerous first baseman John Youens was up. Youens hit a ball down the left field line, scoring two more Crawdads runs. At first, it seemed like the first baseman was able to slide into second base safely to keep a runner in scoring position, but his slide took him off the bag, where he was tagged out.

“I hit a pop-up slide and my knee kind of buckled and forced myself off the bag,” Youens said. “That’s what happened there.”

Instead of a runner in scoring position with one out, Walnut Creek (14-9) had two outs on the board and were starting over from scratch. The rally the team was building was dead in an instant. San Luis Obispo (14-11) was able to hold the Crawdads scoreless the rest of the way, and the Walnut Creek team lost 9-3. Walnut Creek’s bats never really adjusted to Sinsheimer Park, and the team struggled because of it

“We hit too many balls in the air,” Crawdads head coach Brant Cummings said. “We hit some balls on the button, (but) this is the wrong park. (If) we’re playing at our park, probably a couple of balls go out of the park. But here, no. … Part of the game is adjusting, and if you don’t, that’s what you’re going to be left with.”

The Crawdads’ home field, Monte Vista High School in Danville, California, is far from a hitter’s paradise. The wind picks up as games go on and knocks fly balls out of the sky. Still, even compared to Monte Vista, Sinsheimer Park is a graveyard for baseballs. The Crawdads hit 10 fly balls into the outfield, and only Youens’ eighth-inning double found grass for a base hit.

While the stadium was a challenge, it wasn’t the only reason Walnut Creek had such a rough two-day visit to San Luis Obispo. The Blues staff was able to keep the Crawdads off balance and trusted their defense to make record outs when contact was made.

“I think they mix it up pretty well,” Youens said. “They knew how to throw the ball and made some pretty good defensive plays. I don’t think we swung the bat bad at all. I think we swung pretty good, but they’re just making plays.”

Apart from keeping the tag on Youens when he came off second base in the eighth, the Blues busted another potential rally in the fourth. With Crawdads designated hitter Cam Calvillo on first base, third baseman Nico DeFazio reached on a two-out knock deep into the 3-4 hole that Blues’ second baseman Gavin Constantine gobbled up on a dive. Calvillo rounded second and was chugging for third. Calvillo reached third on a slide, but the ball was there first and the Cal State Northridge man was tagged out for the final out of the frame.

Plays like that helped San Luis Obispo’s three arms — right-handed starter Charlie Feris and righty relievers Spencer Gallimore and Cade O’Hara — cruise through nine innings. On the flip side, the Crawdads used eight different pitchers to get through the game.

It wasn’t a move that was necessarily done by choice. Cummings had to keep his bullpen arms in in-game shape by getting them game action after two off-days prior to the weekend road trip.

“We’ve got to make sure we get them reps,” Cummings said. “That’s one of the things that we’re responsible for doing.”

Conventional wisdom might tell you that throwing that many arms in a game — even if it’s something you have to do — increases the likelihood for something to go wrong. Cummings disagrees.

“It doesn’t matter if you come in and throw one inning or you’re going to throw two, you’ve got to come in (and) throw strikes,” Cummings said. “That’s just what it is.”

Still, the strategy didn’t work out how the team would’ve wanted it to. A handful of pitchers had solid outings that they’ll hope to build upon, but others had outings they’ll hope to forget as soon as possible.

The Crawdads’ fourth pitcher of the afternoon, right-hander Noah Zirkle, had a blowup outing where he was credited with five earned runs. Righties Kam Croghan and Micah Billings allowed four runs — three earned — between the two of them in the seventh and the eighth to put the game even further out of reach.

Luckily for the Crawdads, this road trip was the last time they’ll have to travel more than an hour to play a game in the regular season. The ‘Dads got to sleep in their home beds Sunday night and will look to return to Monte Vista refreshed on Monday to make better memories against the non-CCL California Tigers in a potential bounceback game.

“I think it’s an awesome opportunity,” Said Sunday’s opener Dylan McShane — who tossed one inning of scoreless baseball. “The best thing about baseball is you almost play every day and you can bounce right back, (you) don’t have to sit on it for too long. We’re going to have a good bus ride back, sleep well and ready to get after an awesome next week.”

By Ethan Ignatovsky