Crabs Top Dawgs on Tourney's First Day
ARCATA (Aug. 5, 2010) — It turns out patience is a virtue on the baseball diamond too.
After being stymied by Southern Oregon starter Jon Flinn through seven innings, the Crabs finally broke through against reliever Tiger Sorensen with five runs in the eighth to beat the RiverDawgs 6-2 on the first day of the WCL Tri-State tournament.
The top-seeded Crabs, who won the league regular season crown with a 20-4 record, trailed 2-1 late, mustering only one run on a bases-loaded walk against Flinn. But the floodgates opened in the eighth.
Two walks, an infield hit and an error allowed the Crabs to tie the game, then Jeff "Freeway Ball" Johnson laced a two-run single to put the home team ahead for good. When the dust cleared, Humboldt had a four-run lead, and the 'Dawgs' ninth-inning rally was killed when Derrick Dingeman picked off a runner at first to end the game.
Chris Johnson pitched two innings to the win in relief of starter Alex Capaul, who went six innings and allowed two runs on six hits.
Earlier in the day, Redding defeated Folsom 4-2 in the tournament opener. On Friday, Redding takes on Southern Oregon at 2 p.m., followed by the Crabs and Folsom at 7 p.m.