Walnut Creek breaks franchise win-streak record in stellar run of games

Sunday, June 14, Walnut Creek fell 5-2 to the San Luis Obispo Blues. 

Sitting at 4-4, on a three-game losing streak, the message from manager Brant Cummings was simple.

"Tell them the positives," Cummings said. "Make sure they understand the things that we can clean up a little bit, but just trust them to be the players that they are, and not try to do too much to tinker with anything."

The trust Cummings had in his players has now fully paid off. Eight games later, the Crawdads are 12-4, second in the CCL North and just set the franchise record for their longest win streak after an 11-6 win over San Francisco. 

Off the back of the losing streak, Walnut Creek picked up two routine victories over San Francisco and Menlo Park, final scores reading 7-1 and 3-1.

The next day, the win would not be as simple. Playing 10 innings, the Crawdads snatched victory from the jaws of defeat via a walkoff three-run home run from sophomore catcher Riley Winchell to take down Alameda 7-5 . 

After an 11-1 win over San Francisco the next day, Walnut Creek would play an exciting game with Alameda. 

Scoring six runs in the fifth inning, the game seemed to be out of reach for the Merchants, but the two teams trading runs in the back half of the game kept it competitive heading into the ninth inning. However, in the ninth inning, Walnut Creek would score four runs, taking a 12-6 lead, the score that would stay as the final.

Heading home for the final game of the week, the Crawdads were hoping to carry out a goal set by the coaching staff at the beginning of the week: sweep the week.

After the rough ending to the week before, winning six of six games would give the team the boost they needed in the standings and dugout mentality.

As they took the field against Philippines Baseball Group, sweeping the week was no issue, picking up their first shutout of the season in a 5-0 victory.

With a new week starting, there was a new mindset for the team: one game at a time. However, Cummings still placed emphasis on winning the first two games of the week, the first against Sonoma and the second against San Francisco. 

While the Crawdads won both games, it was not easy.

In both games, Walnut Creek struggled to come out to early leads. Against Sonoma, the Crawdads didn't score their first runs of the game until the sixth inning, tying the game up at 2-2 heading into the final three innings of the game.

On Thursday against the Seagulls, the game entered the eighth inning tied at 5-5 after both teams had a two-run and three-run inning early in the game.

The major similarity between the two games was an onslaught of offense in a short span of time. In both games, the Crawdads had a six-run inning. On Wednesday, it was the seventh. In Thursday's game, the eighth.

While the games both had big innings, the source of the offense seemed to differ. In Wednesday's game, an accumulation of no-out hits put pressure on the Sonoma pitching staff, putting the game out of reach.
Thursday's offense had some major differences. As sophomore designated hitter Sutter Moss stepped up to the plate in the eighth inning with a runner on second and the Seagulls leading 6-5, he was yet to record a hit in the game. Battling through a six-pitch at-bat, Moss got the pitch he was waiting for and crushed past center-field wall, igniting the Crawdad dugout and taking the lead.

Mashing his second home run of the season, Moss was happy to start what ended up being an onslaught of Walnut Creek offense.

"I struggled throughout the day, just had to get out of my head a little bit that last at bat," Moss said. "I felt pretty good going up there and driving them in. It was a good start to the rally, and we capitalized after that too."

Sophomore outfielder Dylan Perez found himself in a similar situation later that inning. This time with a one-run lead, Perez looked for his second home run of the season. With a runner on second base and just one out, Perez crushed the third pitch he saw in the at-bat, hitting the ball over the right field wall, a tall task at Monte Vista High School.

"We weren't swinging it terribly, we were just missing a couple," Perez said. "We were hitting it right at them, so really just keep swinging it, and they'll start falling eventually."

The Crawdad offense has seemed to score in whatever ways needed during the record-setting run of results. Whether it's small ball or the long ball, Walnut Creek is willing to do whatever is necessary to put runs on the board. 

The offense showed its identity during the eight-game stretch, leaving Cummings proud of how his team plays.

"It means we have scoring flexibility," Cummings said. "We don't necessarily have to get home runs, but we can. We steal bases, we can fight for a hit if necessary. We hit it on the ground, we score them with runners in scoring position with less than two outs."

With a record now reached, the Crawdads are looking to set the record to an even larger number. With a matchup set for tomorrow at San Francisco starting at 6:05 p.m., the message to pick up win number nine is simple.

"Find a way to bring your best focus every chance you have to score," Cummings said. "Score and throw strikes and catch the ball."