Walnut Creek completes season sweep over San Francisco in historic day

Six baserunners allowed, a player's first home run of the season and a record broken.

With three games remaining in Walnut Creek's schedule heading into Friday, still deeply entrenched in a race for first place in the CCL North, a matchup against San Francisco was one the Crawdads knew would be important.

Nine innings later, Walnut Creek is now 26-10, still in first place after a 5-1 victory.

As the game started, the Crawdads wasted no time to get the offense going. In just the fourth at-bat of the game, junior outfielder Joe Coupland picked up an RBI double before junior first baseman Barrett Ronson mashed his first home run of the season just one inning later.

From the third to the eighth inning, neither team found a way on the board. Then, both scored in the ninth.

Junior Daniel Polasek and senior Aidan Robles picked up RBIs in the ninth inning to take a 4-1 lead before the Crawdads saw their biggest moment of the day.

Heading into the day tied for the Crawdads record for RBIs, senior Ryan Ellis stepped up to the plate for a pinch-hit with a runner on second base. Then, on the first pitch he saw, Ellis made history, marking his record-breaking 85th RBI for the Crawdads.

After breaking Walnut Creek history, Ellis was incredibly proud of what the moment meant.

"It means a lot," Ellis said. "I wouldn't be here for my fourth year if it didn't mean something to me. It's just awesome that I'm able to contribute and help us win games."

The Seagulls also added one run in the ninth, but it was too little too late as the Crawdads took home the victory.

After a dominant performance from his team, Walnut Creek coach Brant Cummings was pleased with the way his team played.

"Pitched the heck out of it," Cummings said. "We held them scoreless on four hits up till the ninth. We had nine strikeouts and two walks. Really outstanding effort." 

Cummings was correct to point out the pitching staff as the most dominant part of the roster Friday night.

Senior Jeremy Jones started the game with four innings of shutout, two-hit baseball while striking out four batters.

Following him was junior Vance Haskins. Normally a starting pitcher, Haskins relished the opportunity to come out of the bullpen, allowing just two baserunners in three innings and striking out three.

Starting the game well, Jones knew he had nothing to worry about once Haskins stepped on the mound after him.

"It's great, especially with a close game like that," Jones said. "I knew Vance was going to hold it down. Definitely big to give the ball to him and just let him go."

Redshirt sophomore Tre Golino and sophomore Michael Olsen finished the day off after the pair of starters, combining to allow no hits and strike out three batters.

After the strong day on the bump, Cummings was very happy with his staff.

"It's really good," Cummings said. "Gives us some flexibility. Our bullpen is a little bit up and down right now, so to have some depth from the front end is helpful. They both have experience, they both command the strike zone. They give you a chance."

On the other side of the ball, Walnut Creek continued their theme of offensive versatility. Of twelve hitters to step up to the plate, eight recorded a hit, alongside all five RBIs came from different players.

The most notable RBI was Ronson's drive over the left field wall. A player who has been due all season long, Ronson was waiting for that moment for weeks. Finally ending his drought, Ronson spoke about what his mentality was that ended it.

"Mentality has been, 'hey, this game's hard. It's okay to have a little drought,'" Ronson said. "But I also got to a point where I felt I needed to figure something out."

Ronson certainly did figure something out, evidenced by the ball sitting past the wall at the Seagulls' stadium.

Through the drought, Ronson was not the only person who felt he was due. His coach saw it similarly. 

"I was hoping to see this," Cummings said. "He can build on this. He's gaining more confidence. He's made the hitting process more complicated than it has to be, which a lot of guys do when they don't experience success. But today was a step in the right direction."

After the victory, the Crawdads now look ahead to their final two games of the season.

The first of which is a matchup set to be at Sonoma on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.

As the season closes and Walnut Creek sits above San Luis Obispo in the standings, all it will take to clinch first place is to win the final two games for the Crawdads. They can also clinch with tomorrow with a victory and a loss from the Blues.