Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Crabs pitcher Colton Wuelfling in action at the Arcata Ball Park on Friday night.

By Ray Hamill — Billy Ham hit a home run and two doubles to lead the Crabs to a 6-3 win over the Athletic Edge Express at the Arcata Ball Park on Friday night.

The impressive Ham finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs and a pair of runs, as the Crabs extended their winning streak to eight straight games.

The two teams battled back and forth early in the game, with the visitors taking an early one-run lead in the top of the first, only for the home team to respond immediately in the bottom half of the inning with a three-run home by Ham to right field.

The Express, who out-hit the Crabs 10-3 over the first four innings, would tie the game with two more runs on the third.

The Crabs, however, would re-take the lead when Luke Reece hit an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to kickstart a three-run inning, as the home team’s bats began to settle into the game.

Reece finished with a pair of hits in the win, as did teammate Griffin Myers.

The Crabs out-hit the visitors 7-2 over the final five innings.

Caleb Ruiz got the start on the mound and pitched five innings before Colton Wuelfling took over and threw one scoreless inning for the win.

Benjy Tucker threw three hitless innings to close out the game.

With the win, the Crabs improved to 8-2 on the season.

The two teams will continue a three-game weekend series on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m., before closing out the weekend with a 12:30 p.m. game on Sunday.