Photos by Matt Filar/Humboldt Crabs Baseball

Buy Ray Hamill — The Humboldt Crabs will be hoping for a better start to league play this summer as they get set for what could be a pivotal week in their schedule.

The local club opens the Pacific Empire League with six road games this week, including three against the Healdsburg Prune Packers on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday nights.

They then travel to Lincoln to play three games against the Potters this weekend.

And manager Robin Guiver and his players will be hoping to avoid a repeat of last year, when they dropped all six road games against the Prune Packers and Potters in the opening week of league play.

The Crabs would bounce back nicely from that disappointing start to almost qualify for the league’s inaugural championship series, but ultimately fell just short.

And it won’t be easy going up against a pair of clubs that are annually among the best teams the local club faces all summer.

The Prune Packers are 7-0 on the season, while the Potters are an impressive 14-1.

The Crabs, however, have been equally impressive and are off to a 12-0 start, including a series sweep of the Athletic Edge Express this past weekend.

The team bats have been on fire this summer and the Crabs have been averaging more than eight runs a game.

The pitching, however, remains a work in progress.

“We’ve had a lot of good offense,” Guiver said after the weekend sweep. “We’re hitting the ball well. We’re walking too many guys, that’s the biggest thing we need to clean up, but our offense has been making up for that.

“We’ve got to throw more strikes and hopefully keep our offense going like we’ve been doing.”

The road trip should also serve as a team bonding experience for the players.

All three games in Healdsburg get under way at 6 p.m. and fans can follow the action on KATA 1340 AM, as well as through the Crabs YouTube channel.

Friday and Saturday nights’ games begin at 7:05 p.m., while Sunday’s matchup is set for 6:05 p.m.

Photos by Matt Filar/Humboldt Crabs Baseball – Myles Standish ij action for the Crabs on Friday night.