Walnut Creek continues strong defensive performance with win over Menlo Park

After Walnut Creek went into an off-day on a three-game losing streak, the Crawdads didn't allow themselves to feel demoralized.

Now, on a two-game winning streak, feeling well-rested, sophomore pitcher Myles Brand summed up the feeling inside the Crawdad dugout perfectly.

"Confident and having fun," Brand said.

After taking down San Francisco 7-1 the day before, the Crawdads continued a strong run of defense, taking down Menlo Park 3-1 on Wednesday.

Bouncing back from a three-game losing streak, Brand described what has been working for Walnut Creek, now 6-4 in CCL play, in the new week.

"Hanging out with each other, team chemistry is going well," Brand said. "I can trust my catcher. We can trust our guys. Trust helps everything."

Similar to the day before, Wednesday's matchup stayed close for all nine innings.

It took five innings for the first runs to cross the plate, junior second baseman Alijah Ramos and sophomore shortstop Peyton Rowles both picking up an RBI to open the scoring.

The Crawdad rotation continued to work, only giving up one run heading into the ninth. 

Up by one run, Walnut Creek coach Brant Cummings decided to put junior outfielder Shane Aldridge in the game to pinch hit for senior left fielder Ryan Ellis. Leading off the inning, Aldridge delivered a hit.

Sophomore center fielder Bryden Bull followed Aldridge's single with a double of his own before junior first baseman Barrett Ronson drove Aldridge in.

Picking up a big extra base hit to deliver much-needed insurance, Bull credited his teammate for giving him the confidence for his big moment. 

"Special shout out to Shane Aldridge for doing the hardest thing in baseball there, coming in and pinch-hitting in the ninth," Bull said. "That's hard to do. Leads us off, I feel like he helped me."

For the second game in a row, Walnut Creek excelled on the mound. Sophomore right-hander Alessandro Martinez opened the game with three innings of shutout baseball, allowing just two hits and striking out five.

Being credited with the win and having an important first three innings, Martinez spoke about what worked so well for him.

"Just pounding first pitch strikes, getting ahead," Martinez said. "They were fouling off everything, but we found a way to make it work. Off speed really worked for most of our pitching staff. We had everything working, just getting ahead after a pretty rough stretch."

After Martinez pitched, sophomore Miles Tenscher went for one inning, walking one batter, but striking out the other three he faced. Sophomore Myles Brand was up next for two innings of one-hit baseball, striking out four batters.

Senior Noah Zirkle, redshirt freshman Jacob Kobrin and sophomore Carlos Hernandez pitched the seventh, eighth, and ninth in order, combining to allow just two hits, one run and strike out five batters.

Impressed with his pitching staff, Cummings was happy to see his team play.

"Strike throwing, stacking the hitters, not walking people," Cummings said. "We walked one today. That's been the recipe of going after hitters."

The impressive day from the Crawdads staff was more than just allowing one run. Tying the franchise record, Walnut Creek struck out 17 batters Wednesday night. Of the 27 outs against Menlo Park, 62% came as strikeouts.

Wednesday being a historic win, Cummings spoke on what helped make the game so successful.

"Big strike zone, umpire called it both ways, lot of strikeouts," Cummings said. "Just attack it, go get them. Make them pick the ball and play, don't walk them, don't hit them, don't do any of that stuff. Force them to make it difficult on you."

While Crawdads pitching limited balls hit into play, 10 outs still came from the fielders. 

One important factor in limiting the legends to one run on five hits was making zero errors in the field.

Having a high-level defense behind him, Brand was pleased with his confidence level.

"Amazing, they're able to make every play," Brand said. "I trust them, even if they make mistakes, we'll pick them back up."

Playing their first road game after an eight-game home stretch that lasted 12 days, Walnut Creek picked up its first victory on the road after losing to Sonoma in its first away game of the season.

Now 1-1 in away games, Martinez was happy to add the first tally to the road wins column.

"It's really hard to win away games," Martinez said. "It feels really good to just get that first one out of the way. The boys are probably feeling great about it, and we're ready to roll with the rest of the summer."

The Crawdads now gear up for action on Thursday, where they will face the Alameda Merchants at 4:00 p.m. back home at Monte Vista High School.