Walk-off Winchell: Crawdads see heroic home run to take down Alameda

Walnut Creek sophomore catcher Riley Winchell took one final practice swing in the on-deck circle. Moving one step at a time, he found himself in a situation most dream of, with two on and two outs in the bottom of the 10th.

The Crawdads trailed by one. In fact, it was the first time they trailed Thursday afternoon Winchell grabbed the bat and loaded into his peculiar stance. His hands dropped in front of his belt buckle as he settled into a very relaxed stance with little movement. 

While Winchell didn't start the game, he had a chance to finish it. As the 3-1 pitch was hurled in, Winchell delivered a loud strike with the bat. Everything seemed to run in slow motion. Alameda's rising senior center fielder Isaiah Landry continued to backtrack, as Crawdads' players didn't fully know if it was leaving the yard while most in the crowd stood up. 

Then, after a failed leaping catch attempt, it fell over the left-center field wall for a three-run homer. Winchell pumped his fist in the air rounding first and the Crawdads' bench shot out of the dugout like a cannon, pouring out cheers and swarming Winchell once he crossed home plate.  

Walnut Creek (7-4 in CCL) secured its 7-5 victory over Alameda (6-4 in CCL) in walk-off fashion at Monte Vista High School Thursday night. Despite garnering an early 4-0 lead, an extra inning was needed. 

"I thought it was out number three," Cummings said on his initial reaction. "I was really glad we won, because I didn't want to lose. But when he hit that thing, I thought there's out number three, and then when Landry went back and kept going, I said, 'this might have a chance,' and it went over the fence."

Crawdads sophomore left-handed pitcher Dylan Scott started on the mound. Scott went the furthest of any Crawdads starter this season and tied sophomore right-hander Kalani Jauregui for most strikeouts in a game thus far. Scott threw 63% of his pitches for strikes and struck out six, allowing two hits, three walks and no runs across 4.1 innings. 

"I feel like I can go out there and give the boys a chance to win the ball game," Scott said. " I know that whoever's next is going to get the job done. But with the big six-game stretch that we had going on right here, I knew that me being able to go as deep as possible was going to allow the boys to get a little bit extra rest."

Redshirt freshman righthander Tre Golino followed Scott, pitching one inning of scoreless ball.

While the pitching clicked through the opening frames, the Crawdads found success at the plate as well, scoring in each of the first three innings.

Despite Winchell making the biggest impact at the plate, he was not the only Crawdad to hit well Thursday afternoon. Redshirt freshman shortstop TJ Woodson picked up a single and a double, driving in a run in the second inning.

Sophomore second baseman Peyton Rowles also continued his stellar season, driving Woodson in with a single the next at bat.

After a strong first four innings from the Crawdad offense, Woodson spoke about what the team has to do to stay hot.

"We just got to get base runners on," Woodson said. "If we can get base runners on, we know the next guy can hit a big swing at any moment. That's what happened."

After taking a 4-0 lead into the seventh inning, Alameda's offense began to click, tying it up in the eighth after a three-run seventh and one-run eighth. 

Neither team scored in the ninth, setting up for the first extra innings game of 2026 for Walnut Creek.

After a wild pitch and double, Alameda took the lead in the top of the tenth with no outs. However, three consecutive outs from senior left-handed pitcher Ryan DeLaney limited the damage, sending the Crawdads down one run into the bottom of the tenth.

The first two at-bats of the innings ending with groundouts, one of which sent the extra runner to third base, the Crawdads were down to their last out of the game. Sophomore designated hitter Sutter Moss was even down to his last strike, facing a 3-2 count with the game on the line. Ever the comfortable hitter, Moss took ball four, putting Winchell in the position to make his magic.

Up 3-1 in the count with two runners on, Winchell saw his pitch and won the game for the Crawdads.

Clinching an important third consecutive win, Winchell is confident with how his team has adjusted recently.

"We just flipped the mindset," Winchell said. "We went into that third game that we got on a losing streak, and we were like, 'Hey, we got a scrap, there's no more big swing solo guys.'" Then we started playing more as a team. That's where it kind of flipped."

When looking at the Crawdads schedule, the team doesn't seem to have one set way to win games. 

From 4-3 to 17-1 wins to results like Thursday's 7-5 walkoff, Walnut Creek is able to adjust to win how they need to. 

"Every day it's different," Cummings said on his team's identity. "It could be pitching, it could be offense, could be defense. We have all three components, and what you should see is when we're able to put all three together, you'll see a cleaner outcome. Sometimes if it's two out of the three, you might see 14-10 or 7-5 when we let them back in the game today, when we should not have. I appreciate the effort. The sport isn't easy. It doesn't go all the way the way you think it should."

When Cummings looks back to game one, he sees a team that did not know each other well, that had an 0-0 record and was yet to spend time together.

Now, the Crawdad dugout is lively for a team that is 7-4 and second in the California Collegiate League North Division. 

Having the opportunity to connect with his roster in the past two weeks, Cummings is pleased with how the team has connected.

"It's a good group of kids," Cummings said. "They're starting to get accustomed to each other, and the family-ish-ness is growing every day. They like each other. A couple weeks ago, they didn't really know each other, so that plays a huge part."

After losing three games in a row, the Crawdads have flipped fate on its head, now winning the following three. With a matchup at the San Francisco Seagulls set for Friday at 6:00 p.m., Cummings sent a message to the rest of the CCL.

"Bottom line, we're good," Cummings said. "It's not going to be easy. Respect us because we are good."