Walnut Creek tears up basepaths in victory over Sonoma

In Wednesday's 8-2 win over Sonoma, Walnut Creek had just two hits that produced RBIs. How did the Crawdads fill up the scoresheet, then? It wasn't with two grand slams. It was with ruthless baserunning and capitalizing on mistakes.

In the second inning, sophomore infielder Lucas Carslile blasted a ball over the left field wall for a two-RBI home run. In the fourth, senior utility man Ryan Ellis hit an RBI single. Those were the two hits that produced RBIs for the Crawdads.

Now 17-4 and at the top of the CCL North, the Crawdads are on a 13-game win streak, tying the longest streak in 2026 that a CCL team has recorded. The primary term that Walnut Creek manager Brant Cummings has mentioned during the streak is offensive flexibility.

The Crawdads flexibility became evident against Sonoma.. With just three runs being driven in from hits, Walnut Creek found other ways to drive in runs.

Two of those runs, the first and last runs of the game for the Crawdads, came from sacrifices. The first, a groundout with two runners in scoring position and the second, a flyout in the fifth inning.

With five of eight runs accounted for, the other three scored in similar ways: capitalizing on errors.

In the fourth and fifth innings, the Crawdads saw three runners cross the plate after mistakes made by the Stompers. An error at first, a wild pitch and an errant throw from the catcher attempting a throw out all made way for runs to score.

With the Crawdads placing an emphasis on activity on the basepaths, the identity of "fun" has been mentioned multiple times by members of the roster. One of these players is junior infielder Alijah Ramos. Racking up two hits and a stolen base against his former team, Ramos is happy to carry out the Crawdad identity.

"Keep things loose, man," Ramos said. "At the end of the day, this is baseball, it's supposed to be fun, and at times you can be hard on yourself, it can be very pressing, but when you got a lot of guys that remind you that it's just a game and just have fun with it, good things happen."

A major part of offensive flexibility is being able to find runs in every way possible. While small ball benefited the Crawdads alongside six stolen bases, they certainly got a boost from the second inning home run by Carslile. 

While his offense benefitted the team on Wednesday, he will miss Thursday's game, making the win over Sonoma his final game before the All Star break. The second half of the season ahead, Carlisle spoke about what he wants to do heading out of the break.

"I'm just hoping to stay hot, hopefully the guys stay hot too," Carlisle said. "I know they'll get a win tomorrow without me, they don't need me."

In the midst of a historic season, the Crawdads have gone just about a month and a half without touching defeat. The final hurdle for Walnut Creek before seeing four days off is a matchup at Chabot College against the Alameda Merchants at 4:00 on Thursday.

In such great form, Cummings highlighted what the team has done so great in 2026, not limited to just baseruning.

"They've excelled at stealing bases and playing defense, really good at that," Cummings said. "They pitch really well too, especially out in the bullpen, but I would say those are the things they've done very well at."

While the Crawdads are in the greatest form in franchise history, the approach from the team hasn't been focused on the result as much as it is what goes into the result. A CCL veteran, Ramos explained how the team has found success.

"Even when we're down, we don't press," Ramos said. "We just play our game, we just trust our pitchers, trust that the bats are good and things always work out and pan out.When we're getting into the game, we aren't focused about the winners, more about the process, and just keeping that process up."