ALAMEDA, Calif. — Walnut Creek Crawdads designated hitter Ryan Ellis wasn’t in the mood to wait around in the ninth inning of a chilly Wednesday night game at College of Alameda against the Merchants. He stepped into the left-handed batter’s box, saw a sinker from Merchants’ right-handed reliever Will Bonini and let it rip. 

It was a bold decision for Ellis to be as aggressive as he was, swinging at the first pitch. When he walked up to the plate, he was walking into the most crucial moment of the game so far. The Crawdads loaded the bases on two walks and a hit by pitch, threatening to break the tie that the game had been deadlocked in since the sixth inning, but the Merchants had recorded two outs, including Bonini striking out Crawdads shortstop Nico DeFazio on three pitches, seemingly settling him into a groove.  

Ellis didn’t care. He stuck with the approach he had utilized all game, and when he swung at the first pitch sinker, he made contact. Ellis flared a ball the other way, finding grass in shallow left field, allowing two runs to score and giving Walnut Creek (19-15) a 4-2 lead, which it held in the bottom of the ninth to defeat Alameda (16-14). The win gave the Crawdads possession of the third and final playoff spot in the CCL North, and the way they got it was a role reversal from recent games. 

“Ellis comes up, gets his bat broken, and hits a little flare, which we need,” Crawdads head coach Brant Cummings said. “So many times in the last two weeks that kind of thing has happened (against) us, and now we were the beneficiaries of that. It felt good to have that play specifically happen. That was the biggest play at that moment, and it ultimately defined the final score.” 

By Ellis’s own admission, it wasn’t the greatest hit, but it got the job done, which is all that matters at the end of the day. He was able to take advantage of ducks on the pond, something that Walnut Creek’s lineup has struggled with at points throughout the season. Ellis was only able to score those runners, though, because the offense collectively overcame its earlier struggles and got on base. 

The Merchants threw some of their best arms at the Crawdads, including their ace right-hander, Jaden Bitter, who was partially to blame for the slowed down offensive production. Bitter entered Wednesday with a 3.95 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 27.1 innings pitched, adding to the impressive total with six strikeouts in 3.2 innings. 

“(Bitter) was mixing really well,” Ellis, who got one of two hits off of Bitter, said. “He didn’t throw the fastball a whole lot, so he kept us off balance. It really worked for him early on.” 

Bitter started to struggle in the fourth, and Walnut Creek took advantage of two walks — the first base runners since the first inning — scoring them on a Ryley Leininger double against the starter. Unfortunately, Alameda’s righty and lefty relief duo of AJ Gamboa and Dominic Cristinzio teamed up in relief of Bitter, allowing just two more base runners until the ninth. 

It was only then, when Cristinzio’s command started to falter, that the Crawdads were able to draw two walks, drive him out of the game, and do damage against Bonini. Staying patient and letting their opponents beat themselves when they start to sputter out is something the offense will need to continue doing going forward.

“Working the counts, putting good at-bats, just battling, that’s what it comes down to,” Ellis said. “When you’re in that type of situation, you just need base runners and then make something happen. Luckily, we did.” 

After Ellis gave the Crawdads the lead, the defense — which had played nearly flawlessly up to that point, a stark contrast from previous games — and right-handed reliever Halen Guerrero had to preserve it.

“As soon as we get that lead, I want to win it for these guys that work so hard to get those runs on the board for me,” Guerrero said. “I go up there, I try to fill (the zone) up, let them work, let the defense work, and just get us out of there with the lead and win the game.”

That’s exactly what happened. 

Guerrero recorded out number one on an uneventful flyball, and then struck out the next two Merchants he saw to solidify the victory. The inning was a continuation of his brilliance after entering the game during a weird sequence in the sixth inning. 

Guerrero had only thrown a few warmup pitches before Cummings started the slow, methodical walk out to the mound, where he then had a conversation with the infield and left-handed pitcher Max Cohen. Cummings had planned on bringing in Guerrero, but was stalling for time. Before Cummings had a chance to signal for the righty, though, he was already on his way to the mound.

“There was a little bit of confusion, but it all worked out,” Guerrero said. “Everything ended up being fine. 

“This role, I’ve done for a while. Two years now, coming out of the ‘pen with not a lot of time to warm up. Once you get in that game, you really got to feel the mound quickly, locate your pitches with those warm-up pitches, and then throw it with intent during the game.” 

Guerrero’s performance might literally have been just another Wednesday for him, but it was huge for Walnut Creek. He allowed zero runs, building off the solid outings of Cohen and right-handed starter Kody Perry — who each gave up one run — before him. 

The pitching staff kept a struggling Crawdads offense in the game and gave them a chance to win after back-to-back games where they allowed seven runs to cross the plate. It wasn’t just the pitching staff, though. The defense played fundamentally sound baseball after committing 16 errors across four post-All-Star break games, and, in the end, the offense came up clutch.

The Crawdads still have work to do to make the playoffs — and won’t want to risk their chances by losing to the Menlo Park Legends in their next game Thursday — but they now have the blueprint and will hope that the cold Wednesday night win can be the spark that the team needs.

“This game was huge,” Guerrero said. “It gives us all the momentum, it gives us the trust in each other, it gives us all the strength that we need to keep moving forward and win out throughout this week and make a good playoff run.”

By Ethan Ignatovsky