Crawdads fight hard, but fall to Stompers in the CCL North Championship game, 3-2
SONOMA, Calif. — Everything seemed to be going the Walnut Creek Crawdads’ way heading into the bottom of the tenth inning against the Sonoma Stompers in the CCL North Championship game Wednesday night.
Right-handed reliever Brady Wilson had inexplicably been able to get out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in a tied game in the bottom of the ninth, keeping the Crawdads alive as the team screamed and jumped off the field. They kept the momentum rolling, and more importantly, scored ghost runner Ryley Leininger in the top of the tenth to put themselves in a special spot, just three outs away from a chance to go and compete for the CCL Championship.
Unfortunately for the Crawdads, Stompers designated hitter Nic Sebastiani didn’t care about any of that. He didn’t care about momentum standing firmly in the Crawdads’ corner. He didn’t care about the pressure on him and his teammates’ shoulders. He didn’t care about the odds of completing a comeback. He just swung.
Sebastiani swung hard at an 0-1 offspeed pitch out of Wilson’s hand, carrying it through the Sonoma night sky into deep left field. Left fielder Joe Coupland ran back toward the wall, but he didn’t have enough room. All he could do, all anyone could do, was watch the ball fly into the bleachers, scoring Sebastiani and the ghost runner Max Handron on a two-run walk-off home run.
Walnut Creek (24-16) had come so close to defeating Sonoma (26-15), but in the end, it was the home team that got to celebrate. They met Sebastiani at home plate, primed with water coolers to dump on the star of the show’s head as the packed Arnold Field crowd went ballistic. The Crawdads, visibly shocked, had no choice but to slowly walk off the field with the scoreboard behind them showing a 3-2 final score.
“It’s a terrible feeling,” Crawdads head coach Brant Cummings said. “I thought we had a chance to win, but I also knew we needed one more to keep us out of the walk-off home run. That’s the one thing I don’t like about the (extra-inning) rule, is it forces the visitors to score a couple of runs, otherwise, one swing and you lose.”
Despite Cummings feeling that the Crawdads needed two runs in the 10th, he was forced to go the small-ball route. The Crawdads’ offense had been quiet up to that point, registering four hits against right-handed starter Shawn McBroom in five innings and none against the righty reliever duo of Luke Duncan and Justin Jones. One of those hits against McBroom was a triple down the right field line off the bat of first baseman Kam Taylor, scoring catcher Zach Justice in the fourth, but Justice had only reached base after Stompers left fielder Trent Keys dropped a fly ball.
Playing the situation gave Walnut Creek its best chance to score, and the team executed beautifully. Coupland laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt back to Jones, moving Leininger to third. Nico DeFazio, pinch-hitting for center fielder Chris Esquivel, then did his part, flaring a ball into right-center field, allowing Leininger to tag and score after it was caught. Despite a two-out single from second baseman Hunter Hirayama, one was all the Crawdads got.
“McBroom was good, Duncan was good and Jones was good,” Cummings said. “They were all really good. Like our guys were.”
It wouldn’t have been too bold of a take to say that the one-run lead would’ve been enough; Wednesday’s game was a low-scoring pitchers’ duel perfectly fit for the playoff environment from the beginning.
Right-hander Raymond Olivas got the nod to start the game for the Crawdads, just two days after he pitched two innings out of the bullpen. It was a bold strategy, but one that ended up being genius. Olivas was able to get through six innings, shutting down the Stompers lineup like it was nothing. He struck out four and allowed just four hits and two walks. Even when Sebastiani reached third base in the fourth inning, Olivas remained calm, inducing weak contact to strand him.
Right-hander Dylan McShane entered in the seventh in relief of Olivas. The 6-foot-9 righty has had his fair share of ups and downs throughout the summer, but was dominant down the stretch. He struck out the side in the last game of the regular season, and did it again Wednesday.
After the performances of Olivas and McShane, it seemed like Walnut Creek could shut down Sonoma’s lineup and escape wine country with a 1-0 win, but the Stompers had other plans. Keys greeted Walnut Creek’s new reliever, right-hander Kody Perry, with a double down the left field line, his third of the game.
Perry then hit a batter before getting the first out of the inning, a flyout to center field, which, unfortunately, allowed Keys to tag for third. This time around, the Crawdads wouldn’t be able to strand a runner there. Stompers second baseman Xander Sielken hit a chopper up the middle, which Perry deflected with his glove, sending the ball into no man’s land and allowing Keys to tie the game.
The momentum had quickly shifted, and the Stompers seemed primed to walk it off in the bottom of the ninth, especially when right-handed reliever Brady Wilson couldn’t find the strike zone. Wilson walked Olimpia on four pitches to start the frame, and things got worse before they got better. Stompers first baseman Paul Lizzul laid down a bunt, and while Justice was able to get out of the squat to fire a throw to first, Taylor couldn’t secure it in his glove, allowing Olimpia to go to third. A five-pitch walk to catcher Connor Pawlowski then loaded the bases.
The situation seemed bleak for the Crawdads, but after a mound visit from pitching coach Dustin Cheyne, Wilson locked in. He struck out Keys looking, struck out right fielder Quinn Medin, who couldn’t check his swing in time, and got Handron to break his bat on a flyout to center field.
Even though Sonoma would walk the game off in the next inning, the Crawdads’ pitching gave the offense a chance to win.
“Olivas was outstanding, McShane was dynamite and Kody Perry did his job,” Cummings said. “We had one little hiccup there, and other than (Wilson) losing his command, he was able to come back and get guys out. He was really good, too. The home run is we’re trying to get ahead and throw strikes, not walk guys.”
The walk-off was a gut punch; all the energy in the Crawdads dugout was drained in an instant. It seemed like an unfair way for the season to end, given the way the team fought, not just Wednesday, but through the ups and downs of the summer to get to the CCL North Championship game in the first place. Still, despite the loss and the team not reaching its ultimate goal of winning it all, Cummings was still incredibly proud of his group.
“We had one or two instances where we struggled a little bit, but overall, we did really well and we saw some growth from some people this summer,” Cummings said. “… A really good season for all these kids, not just as players, but as human beings.”
Given the nature of summer ball, the Crawdads’ roster could look significantly different next year. The 2025 Crawdads were a special group, and it’ll be a tough task for the 2026 team to top them. No matter how that roster shakes out, though, the Crawdads organization has never struggled to put up a good fight, and Cummings doesn’t see that changing.
“We’ll be back in this thing next year.”
By Ethan Ignatovsky