Photos by Matt Filar/Humboldt Crabs Baseball – Last year’s Humboldt Crabs team.

By Ray Hamill — With a new-look ball park and a new-look team, the Humboldt Crabs will kick off the 2025 season this weekend.

The local summer collegiate club will host the Novato Knicks in a three-game series, beginning on Friday night at 7 p.m.

And this year’s team features five former H-DNL players, including newcomers Cayden Lee and Miles Oliver.

Lee, who graduated from St. Bernard’s in 2022, is coming off a big spring playing for Simpson University, while Oliver, a 2023 Arcata High grad, played for College of the Redwoods this year and was one of the team’s most effective pitchers.

Other locals on this year’s team include former Eureka Loggers Keenan Morris, Parker Rodgers and Myles Standish.

Morris will see plenty of time at shortstop in his third summer with the team, while Rodgers and Standish are both in their second year with the club.

As usual, however, the Crabs will be short-handed for opening weekend, with around 20 players on hand and nine or 10 more expected to arrive in the next couple of weeks.

But longtime team manager Robin Guiver is looking forward to the new season and another summer of baseball at the Arcata Ball Park., which has undergone some renovations during the offseason, most notably a new facade.

“We’re super excited to start the 2025 season,” Guiver said. “With the changes to the ball park, it’s really exciting. The field looks great and we’re ready to roll.”

Many of the players arrived in town this week, and Guiver and his staff have held two team practices ahead of the season opener.

The team manager is hoping to have a balanced lineup this summer, although he admits it’s become harder to attract top quality pitching with college coaches more apt to shut their stars down for the summer rather than get them playing time.

“Hopefully we’ll be balanced but the pitching has been hard to find,” Guiver said. “It’s kind of gone that way.”

Three of the local players from last year’s Crabs team are back at the Arcata Ball Park this summer.

The new facade at the Arcata Ball Park.

Offensively, however, Guiver expects the Crabs to be a a fun team to watch this summer.

“I like our offense a lot,” he said. “We’ve got some good team speed and we’re going to have some power.”

The team will be missing some stars for the opening weekend, with five Division-1 players still to arrive in town.

But Guiver feels he has plenty to work with and enough quality players to field a dangerous team against the Knicks.

“We’re ready,” he said. “I like the guys we’re going to throw out on the field. Practice has been good.”

Friday night’s game is set for 7 p.m.

The Crabs will also play the Knicks on Saturday night at 6, before closing out the weekend series on Sunday afternoon at 12:30 p.m.

On Wednesday night, the Crabs will host the Humboldt Eagles in their annual early-season matchup against the local American Legion club.

Last year’s team MVP Jett Ruby