After a dominating week launched the Humboldt Crabs baseball team into first place, the crustaceans welcomed the Bay Area Force into town for two non-conference games before a pivotal series with the Solano Mudcats. In game one, the Crabs, who are down a few starters, got creative again attacking the Force with an array of four pitchers. Lead by three RBIs from Ryan Vanderbrink and Alex Harrington, the Crabs jumped to an early lead with a five-run first and never looked back. Tyler Howard was the standout, driving in three and hitting a home run, and Everett Johnson added a round tripper to put things in the bag for a 13-5 Crabs win.
In game two, the hometown kids would smother the Force. VandenBrink stayed hot with two hits and three RBIs. Jaden Shabry would add a four-hit night, while Manoa Chapman would drive in three. It was business as usual for Adam Enyart, as the “Yarty Party” continued with two more hits and two more runs driven in. Crabs strutted 17-2, but things were just getting warmed up for one of the wildest weekends of Crabs baseball in recent memory.
On Thursday night, the Crabs would welcome the second to last place Solano Mudcats. The Crabs, like everyone in the PEL, have played a lot of games. On this night they looked tired and just couldn’t get it going. Our starter would have a rough one and, after the first three innings, our boys found themselves down 6-1. Our Crabbies are never afraid of a big offensive inning, but that night it wouldn’t show up. Enyart tried his best, but despite two hits and two RBIs, the Crabs were never able to capitalize. Then the drama began. Standing by the dugout, I couldn’t help but notice a lot of chatter and chirping from the Mudcats, and neither could the Crabs. The jabs and the talk would go on all night, and the Crabs would drop game one 6-3.
On Friday night, with a doubleheader lined up leading into a huge Fourth of July weekend, the fireworks came a night early. In game one, the Crabs fell behind, but five runs in the fifth and a run each in the sixth and seventh propelled them to an 8-2 victory. Howard led the way with a moon-shot home run that landed on the northbound side of U.S. Highway 101. He’d end up with three hits and three RBIs. Enyart would add a hit and two runs scored while also locking up his second save. But continued back-and-forth between the two teams would bring things to a boiling point in game two.
In game two, the Mudcats jumped out to a four-run lead, as the chirping continued. The Crabs responded with two runs in the fourth and fifth innings to tie things up. Kawana Soares, who had already singled in a huge run to close the lead to one, found himself in the center of one of the most exciting finishes we’ve seen in a while. In the top of the fifth inning with the game tied, all hell broke loose. There was an exchange between players after a huge strikeout for the Crabs, and the benches cleared. Coaches, players and umpires were all on the field, and warnings were issued to both dugouts, as what looked like a full-on “tarps-off donnybrook” was broken up and cooler heads prevailed.
“I just thought we had a huge strikeout and I was pumped up for our pitcher,” said three-year veteran catcher Soares. “I didn’t say much but they got mad at the way I was fired up and I just smiled at them.” With a grin, he added, “Apparently they took exception to that.” With warnings issued and the game tied in the bottom of the sixth, the Mudcats pitcher hit one of the Crabs hitters and was ejected from the game. And the tides turned for the Crabs after a Jamie Mullin strikeout. The crabs had runners on second and third with their MVP Enyart coming to the plate. (More from Soares in the audio interview below.)
Soares, who was waiting on deck behind him, says the savvy Enyart turned to his fellow captain and asked, “With Jamie getting out, you know they are going to walk me to load up the bases — can you get it done?” Soares says he looked at his teammate and said, “You’re damn right I’ll get it done.”
Enyart was right and the Mudcats would put him on to load the bases. Soares, cool as a cucumber, came to the plate and delivered. He drove a line drive single to plate two and gave the Crabs the lead. The Crabs faithful were going nuts. Following a Daniel Osbourne single, Shabry added a base-clearing double that blew things open and put the game out of reach for the suddenly silent Mudcats. Soares stomped on home plate and looked into the opposing dugout. That capped off a three-hit three-RBI game for Soares, and the five-run inning was the nail in the Mudcats’ coffin. Evan Miranda was outstanding in relief again, throwing four-plus shutout innings of shutout baseball while striking out six. At one point Miranda had thrown seven straight balls and there was action in the bullpen for the Crabs. Coach Jeff Giacomini talked to Miranda about coming out of the game, but the pitcher was fired up and told the skipper, “No, this one is mine.” Miranda stayed in and the Crabs won 9-4. What a night. (Listen to an interview with Miranda below.)
The rest of the weekend was a cake walk for the Crabs. On the July 4, after hitting the ball as hard as you can to all the wrong parts of the yard, VandenBrink broke through with his first home run of the summer. The Crabbies won 16-10.
On get-away day, the Crabs marched out nine pitchers in nine innings. Behind three hits from Howard and three more RBIs from Enyart, the they finished their statement and won 12-2.
Now the biggest challenge of the season begins as the Crabs hit the road for three games against the three-time defending champs and the team that took the title from them last summer, the Healdsburg Prune Packers. They continue to Medford for two games against the Rogues. They will return home July 14 to take on the West Coast Kings. Things are just heating up.
Brandon Dixon (he/him) is a former All American who played college baseball for Orange Coast College, Point Loma Nazarene and the Peninsula Oilers. Father to two little girls, he’s also the host of The Brando Show podcast.
This article appears in Humbuggery in Humboldt, Part 1.
