Photos by Matt Filar/.Humboldt Crabs baseball

By Ray Hamill — The Humboldt Crabs are getting ready for what will be one of the biggest weekends of the 2025 season.

On Friday night, the local club will open a three-game series with the league-leading Healdsburg Prune Packers at the Arcata Ball Park.

Going into a Thursday night game against the Medford Rogues, Healdsburg is two games clear of the Crabs atop the Pacific Empire League standings with a record of 16-3, while the second-placed Crabs are 14-5.

The top two teams in the final league standings will advance to the PEL Championship Series early next month.

The red-hot Lincoln Potters, who have won five straight games, remain well in the mix and sit just two-and-a-half games back of the Crabs in third with a record of 11-7.

And with all of that in mind, this weekend’s series could go along way towards deciding which two teams qualify for the 2025 league championship series.

The Crabs and Prune Packers played three games in Healdsburg earlier in summer with the league leaders taking two of those three.

The Crabs will be hoping to win at least two of three this weekend, which would leave them firmly on track to qualify for the season-ending championship series.

But Crabs manager Robin Guiver is expecting a battle.

“They’re stacked,” he said of the Prune Packers. “They’ve got great players up and down their roster. They’re a very good team and their record indicates that. But we’ve got a really good team too. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Since dropping two of three games at Healdsburg in mid June, the Crabs have won 19 of 22 games, including 13 of 16 in the PEL.

Photos by Matt Filar/.Humboldt Crabs baseball

And the players and coaches are looking forward to the big weekend series.

“We’re super excited,” Guiver said. “We’ve put ourselves in a position where we control our own destiny for sure. We just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing all summer.”

Overall, it has been a very impressive summer so far for a Crabs club that rarely disappoints.

The pitching has come along as the season has progressed, while the team defense has been solid all summer and the offense has looked very good.

“The biggest thing is we’ve had too many walks, but we’ve done a better job in the last couple of weeks of not walking guys,” the manager added. “It’s starting to get cleaned up and I feel a little bit better than a few weeks ago.

“We’ve got a good roster. We’ve got a little bit of depth and it’s been hard to figure out who should be playing. I think we’ve got a lot of balance and depth.”

Friday’s series opener is set for 7 p.m., with game two on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. and game three on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

For those unable to attend this weekend, all three games will be broadcast live on local ESPN affiliate 107.3 FM and 1340 AM, as well as streamed live on the Humboldt Crabs YouTube channel.

Photos by Matt Filar/Humboldt Crabs baseball