Walnut Creek takes first home loss to Alameda

After winning their first four home games of 2026, the Walnut Creek Crawdads lost to the Alameda Merchants, moving their record to 6-2, but 4-2 in league play.

Heading into the game, Walnut Creek were on a hot streak, taking four home victories in a row, sitting first in the CCL North Division and combining for 31 runs in its previous two games. However, a 7-4 loss to Alameda now drops the Crawdads back to second place.

In contrast to the previous Walnut Creek performances, it took a while for the Crawdad offense to get going, only scoring one run in the first three innings.

The game stayed close the whole way, primarily due to strong outings on the mound.

Senior right-hander Jeremy Jones put up his second strong outing of the season, pitching another four innings of good baseball, only allowing four hits and one run.

Sophomore righty Carlos Hernandez also had a good performance, going 2.1 innings allowing just one run on one hit.

One of the larger strengths of the Crawdad pitching staff on Friday was its ability to find the zone. Aggression from the mound being an emphasis, Hernandez was pleased with his outing.

"I mostly just threw fastballs," Hernandez said. "Just put it in play, I guess that's what my goal is."

Despite putting up four runs, it was not a quiet day at the plate for the Crawdads. Sophomore second baseman Peyton Rowles put in another strong performance. After getting the walkoff RBI in the first game against Alameda, Rowles picked up two hits and two stolen bases in a player of the game performance on Friday afternoon.

Rowles wasn't the only one making noise at the plate. The man nicknamed "Mr. Crawdad", senior designated hitter Ryan Ellis also contributed to the offense. This time via a home run.

Friday marked his second consecutive game with a home run, extending his franchise-leading home run tally to 12.

Managing his at-bats well to find pitches he knows he can hit hard, Ellis was happy with how his team is approaching at-bats from the batters box.

"Our approach is really good right now," Ellis said. "Swinging at the right pitches and doing a job to help the team win is really what it comes down to."

The game staying close for eight innings, Alameda pulled away with a three-run ninth inning, all coming with two outs.

One of the biggest turning points of the game was free passes for Alameda. Between hit batters and bases on balls, the Merchants picked up eight bags, one of which was a ninth inning RBI to take the lead.

Disappointed in some aspects of his team's game, Walnut Creek coach Brant Cummings was honest after the game.

"We can't do that," Cummings said. "We've got to get a couple guys going better swinging the bat, that's that's important. We have to play cleaner baseball to keep us in games, and then we'll have to find ways to score."

The Crawdads now look to flip their fate with a weekend series at home against the San Luis Obispo Blues. The first game of which is Little League Day, set for Saturday June 13th at 4:00 p.m. at Monte Vista High School.