Photos by Matt Filar/Humboldt Crabs Baseball

By Ray Hamill — As his team gets set for its final series of the summer, Humboldt Crabs manager Robin Guiver has expressed his appreciation to the players for their efforts this summer.

The culture of collegiate summer baseball has changed over the years and it has become more and more common to see players move on midseason for various reasons.

The 2024 roster did see some changes as the season progressed, but that was mostly because of injuries, and most of the players on this year’s team stuck it out for the two months.

And that’s something Guiver says he appreciates.

“I really like this group of guys,” he said. “And I’m proud of them for sticking it out.”

That perseverance paid dividends as the Crabs enjoyed another exciting campaign playing in front of packed houses at the Arcata Ball Park.

With a record of 30-17 going into the final weekend, they didn’t win as many games as they would have liked, but that had a lot to do with playing in the newly-formed and highly-competitive Pacific Empire League.

After starting league play with seven straight losses, the Crabs players responded by winning 14 of their next 19 league games and almost qualified for the inaugural PEL Championship Series.

They ultimately fell short by just half a game.

“We were disappointed not to make it to the championship of the Pacific Empire League, but we were in the mix,” Guiver said. “We had a chance.

“It was definitely a season of ups and downs. Starting off 0-7 in league was a tough way to start league, but we fought our way back into it.”

Falling short of their goal did not affect the excitement at the Arcata Ball Park and Crabs fans got to witness several game that went right down to the wire, including numerous that were decided on a walk-off.

The five former Eureka Loggers who played for the Humboldt Crabs this summer, from left to right, Myles Standish, Rogan Bode, Parker Rodgers, Hayden Bode and Keenan Morris.

And they can expect more of the same in the future as long as the Crabs are playing in the competitive PEL.

“Being in the league is definitely a more competitive schedule than in recent years, and that’s fine,” Guiver added. “We had a lot of tight games. We lost some tight games and we won some tight games. It is what it is.”

The Crabs will close out the summer season when they play the Menlo Legacy in a three-game series at the Arcata Ball Park this weekend, with game one set for Friday night at 7 p.m.

The two clubs, who will be playing each other for the first time ever, will also play on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. before the final game of the season on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

And the Crabs players are determined to savor the final few games together and close out strong.

“We want to finish up strong and hopefully finish on a good note,” Guiver said.