Crawdads clinch No. 2 seed in the CCL North after 7-1 over the Merchants

ALAMEDA, Calif. — Less than an hour before first pitch at College of Alameda on Sunday, the Walnut Creek Crawdads received unfortunate news; The San Luis Obispo Blues had beaten the Orange County Riptide.

The Blues win meant that a Crawdads loss would send the team traveling down the coast of California on Tuesday morning to take on the Blues at Sinsheimer Park that afternoon, instead of hosting them at Monte Vista High School for the single-elimination first round of the CCL Playoffs. Despite already having clinched a playoff berth, the Crawdads were now preparing for a must-win game, on the road, against the Alameda Merchants.

The pressure might’ve been increased, but it didn’t matter. The offense stayed hot, scoring in six different innings, and after another evening of elite pitching from the staff, right-handed reliever Brady Wilson struck out three in the ninth inning, securing Walnut Creek’s (23-15) 7-1 win over Alameda (18-16), slamming the door on the regular season and keeping the Crawdads in the East Bay.

“Once we recognized what we had to do, I don’t think it changed anything other than we needed to make sure sure (the players) focused to do their job,” Crawdads head coach Brant Cummings said. “The lineup didn’t change … we just did everything the same. They needed to go out there and compete and do things the right way and give us a chance to win.”

The Crawdads did just that, continuing their run of near-perfect baseball and winning their fifth game in a row after inconsistencies plagued the team for most of the summer. The only costly mistake came in the third inning, momentarily equalizing the game.

With right-handed starting pitcher Nathen Nino on the mound, Merchants’ center fielder Dominick Najar drove a ball into deep center field, where his counterpart, Crawdads center fielder Chris Esquivel, couldn’t secure a catchable fly ball in his glove. The error allowed Najar to motor all the way to third base, where he stood with no outs, and later scored on a groundout.

Apart from that moment, Walnut Creek’s defense held strong behind their pitchers, allowing them to get the job done. Nino didn’t allow another run, earned or unearned, throughout his outing. The righty went five strong, struck out six, only gave up two hits and despite giving out five free passes, he never let them come back to bite him.

“Every time I went out to compete against a hitter, it was attack, dominant and get ahead the first pitch,” Nino said. “If I did or didn’t get ahead the first pitch, I was going to get ahead the next pitch. And I was able to do that.”

The Crawdads’ offense was able to score Nino two runs, and with the bullpen locking it down after he left the game, he was credited with his first win of the summer. The lineup scored their second run of the game in the top of the fifth inning, right before Nino’s last frame.

Esquivel made up for his misplay in center field by doubling off the wall in left with two outs, keeping the inning alive and putting pressure on Alameda’s right-handed reliever AJ Gamboa. Second baseman Hunter Hirayama then came through in the clutch, slicing a single into left field, forcing the Merchants to make a play at the plate that they couldn’t pull off and scoring Esquivel.

The double was the second of three hits that Esquivel recorded in his first start after committing to DIII Catholic University in Washington, D.C. His third hit was a triple to deep center field in the top of the ninth inning, but his first hit, despite being a simple single through the right side in the third, was arguably bigger, as it led to the first run of the game.

He scored on a single into center field off the bat of third baseman Cam Calvillo after being bunted over to second base by Hirayama.

“Some minor adjustments were made prior to this game, which helped a lot,” Esquivel said. “Overall, that two-strike hitting did help myself in today’s game. We did play a great game of baseball, like actual baseball, where we bunted, we got guys over, we made the small, routine things that you (have to do) to win a baseball game.”

The Crawdads’ offense didn’t slow down after Esquivel’s two times crossing the plate. In fact, the group only got hotter, scoring five runs over the next four innings, which was more than enough insurance for the Crawdads’ bullpen.

The right-handed trio of Dylan McShane, Raymond Olivas and Brady Wilson threw four nearly perfect innings out of the bullpen. McShane struck out the side in the sixth, Olivas didn’t allow a base runner, striking out three over two innings and Wilson worked around two singles to close the book.

The bullpen has been an issue at points this year for Walnut Creek, but produced a very respectable 3.32 ERA in 19 innings pitched this week. If the group can carry that into the playoffs, the team could have plenty of success.

“I feel like seeing everybody have success, starter, reliever, closer, everybody on the team, it just feeds that positive energy to everybody else,” Nino said. “It just makes you want to go out there and do better than that guy next to you, your teammate, and creates that positive environment and success.”

The Crawdads team-wide positive energy — which is no doubt bolstered by their now five-game winning streak — is essential for the CCL Playoffs. Should they win their first single-elimination game against the Blues, they’ll have to travel to Sonoma and beat the Stompers in the single-elimination second round. Should they win that game as well, they’ll advance to the CCL Championship and face the winners of the CCL South, which has the Conejo Oaks, Riptide and Arroyo Seco Saints making the playoffs.

Despite the odds and the pressure, Walnut Creek is ready for the moment.

“We’re feeling good,” Nino said. “At the end of the day, it’s just baseball, the same game we’ve been playing since we were little. It’s fun and we’re ready to get out there, get some wins and bring it home.”

By Ethan Ignatovsky