File photo/Matt Filar/Humboldt Crabs baseball

The Humboldt Crabs got back to winning ways on Tuesday night, but they slipped out of the two playoff spots in the Pacific Empire League.

The Crabs welcomed the Bercovich Honors to the Arcata Ball Park and opened a two-game non-league series with a 9-1 win.

All nine players in the lineup had at least one hit each, as the Crabs quickly put the disappointment of three weekend loses to the Healdsburg Prune Packers behind them.

However, it wasn’t all good new for the Crabs.

PEL rivals the Lincoln Potters were also in action on Tuesday and defeated the Solano Mudcats 7-5 to move half a game ahead of the Crabs in the league standings and take over sole possession of second place.

The top two teams in the PEL will advance to next week’s championship series.

The Crabs will now be hoping for some help from the league-leading Packers, who sit five games clear of the chasing pack.

The Packers and Potters will face off in a pair of games on Wednesday and Thursday nights and two wins for Healdsburg would put the Crabs back in the driver’s seat to qualify for next week’s big series.

Former Arcata Tiger Miles Oliver got his co-team-leading fifth win of the summer on the mound and improved to 5-0.

Oliver threw five innings against Bercovich and allowed just four hits and one walk while striking out seven.

Cameron Sewell continued his impressive summer with the team and led the way at the plate, finishing 3-for-4 with a walk and two runs, while Keenan Morris was 2-for-4 with a double, two walks and an RBI.

In addition to their 14 team hits, the Crabs also walked 10 times.

They took control of the game early on, scoring three runs in the bottom of the first and stretching the advantage to 8-0 after three.

Parker Rodgers and Michael Perazzo each also had two hits in the win, while Niko Lombardi added a double.

Former St. Bernard’s Crusader Cayden Lee also had a base hit in the win.

With the win, the Crabs improved to 33-8 on the season.

The two clubs will finish up their midweek series on Wednesday night, with first pitch set for 7 p.m.