Crawdads lose first league game against rivals Sonoma 6-4

Thursday night, the Walnut Creek Crawdads picked up their first loss of the season in their first league game of 2026. After starting undefeated, the Crawdads now fall to 2-1 after a 6-4 loss against the Sonoma Stompers.

The game started incredibly tight. Sonoma scored the only run of the first three innings with an RBI single in the second inning. The game never seemed to fully open up for either team, with pitching from both teams finding ways to limit damage in the most important moments.

The middle innings saw a majority of the offensive production on Thursday night. After a low-scoring first three innings, both teams got on the board in the fourth and fifth. Sophomore catcher Riley Winchell tied the game up in the top of the fifth with a groundout that brought sophomore outfielder Dylan Perez home, before Sonoma took the lead back in the bottom of the inning.

Junior shortstop Alijah Ramos added to his steady start of the season. Ramos was a former CCL all-star with the Stompers, with whom he played for in 2024. 

Ramos, who was Walnut Creek's player of the game, had a crucial double, driving in two and giving the Crawdads their first lead of the night, 3-2. 

A primary contributor to the low-scoring start was the starting pitching from the Crawdads. Senior right-hander Jeremy Jones went four innings, the longest appearance of any Crawdad so far in 2026, giving up just four hits and two earned runs, striking out five batters.

Having now used 15 different pitchers through three games, manager Brant Cummings spoke about how important outings like Jones' will be for the Crawdads moving ahead.

"It gives you a chance in the game, but it also limits how many people we have to use, because we're really managing two or three games ahead right now, with the limited amount of people we have," Cummings said. "It was tremendous. He was very good."

Sophomore right-handed relief pitcher Weston Thornbury kept it close, doing his job out of the bullpen. 

Thornbury struck out two and allowed one hit, one walk and one hit by pitch through 1.2 innings. Amongst Walnut Creek pitchers, his three baserunners allowed were the fewest allowed on Friday night. His two strikeouts was second most on the team, behind Jones. 

Coach Cummings re-hashed how important it was for Thornbury to be effective out of the bullpen and be able to go 1.2 innings. 

Despite the number of walks, Walnut Creek pitchers looked sharp. They threw the ball hard, showcased good spin, while Jones and Thornbury, especially, were extremely efficient at navigating the strike zone and getting outs. 

The Crawdads had a chance for a come-from-behind victory in the eighth inning. After loading the bases with one out, luck just wasn't on their side as they couldn't capitalize. 

Yet, small-ball strategy was still evident. In the seventh inning, redshirt freshman left fielder and infielder TJ Woodson bunted a single down the third base line. Unfortunately for the Crawdads and Woodson, Stompers junior catcher Hunter Carlson made an incredible line-drive throw to second, catching him stealing. 

Still, there was a lot to be proud of. The hitting manufactured four runs and even when guys couldn't get on base, they moved guys over into scoring position. 

"There is a lot of talent in this team," Ramos said.  You can't play baseball by yourself. You need a whole team behind you. You're going to have your bad days, so you're going to have three strikeouts, but it's the guy behind you that's going to drive in those runs when you need it." 

Walnut Creek looks to right the ship when they face Alameda for its first matchup at home, Saturday, June 6, at 4:00 p.m. PDT at Monte Vista High School. 

"Going to Monte Vista, let's get a win in our home ballpark and defend what's ours," Ramos said.  (Let's) show everyone in the league what we got, and just keep playing ball and just keep having fun and just keep doing."