Legends use 18 hits, 21 runs to Rout Crawdads
Redwood City, Calif. – On Tuesday, the Menlo Park Legends were stifled by the pitching of the Walnut Creek Crawdads and managed just three hits and one run in a 5-1 loss. On Saturday, things were quite different. Menlo Park scored at least five runs in three different innings and totaled 18 hits en route to a 21-1 thumping of the Crawdads. The win was the first of the summer for the Legends in California Collegiate League play, and they improved to 6-1, having won four straight. The Crawdads fell to 4-4 and 3-3 in CCL games.
While giving an inning-by-inning breakdown of the scoring would be quite tedious, a look at the day for Turner Bishop covers a decent chunk of the scoring. Bishop went 2-3 with two extra-base hits and seven runs batted in over the course of the day. He got the scoring going for the Legends in the bottom of the second with a two-run double that scored Justin Jacobs and Tyler Nelin. His next two at-bats would result in outs, but they were both sacrifice flies. He would come up for the fourth time in the fifth inning with the bases loaded and looking to put an exclamation mark on his day. Do that he would as he lined a triple into left-center field that cleared the bases and raised his RBI total to seven for the day.
The first five runs came in the second inning, and the Legends added five more runs in the third. Things would officially get blown open if they weren’t already in the fifth when Menlo Park sent fourteen hitters to the plate and scored ten times. RJ Williams and Sean Watkins both scored twice in the inning and Justin Jacobs, making his Legends debut, drove in three runs. To highlight a few of the offensive standouts aside from Bishop, Watkins went 4-5 with 3 RBI and two runs scored, Patrick McColl went 2-4 with 3 RBI, and Tyler Nelin reached base safely his first four plate appearances, going 2-4 with 3 runs and an RBI.
On a day when the Legends score 21 times, it could be easy to overlook the pitching performance, but it should not be done on this day. Tanner Disibio got his second start of the season for the Legends, and he was just as good as Elijah Saunders from the day before. Disibio allowed a leadoff single and then proceeded to retire the next fourteen hitters. His command was impeccable and he used both sides of the plate effectively to induce weak contact and strike out four. The leadoff single would be the only hit he would allow through five scoreless innings. Kevin Hahn came in relief and pitched the final four innings, allowing three hits, walking one and striking out one. Like Disibio, his command was sharp, especially with his changeup. Almost every at-bat featured a swinging strike on a Hahn changeup and he had the Crawdads fooled. While the Crawdads did score an unearned run in the top of the eighth, the Legends pitching staff has not allowed an earned run in the last 19.1 innings.
Adding it all up, it was a complete victory for the Menlo Park Legends, and they look to carry that momentum into their next game on Sunday against the PUF Caps. The game will begin at 1:00 PM on Sunday at Palo Alto High School and it will be broadcasted live on the Legends Radio Network.
