Sox botch division title hopes

It wasn't Game 7 in the middle of October, but Thursday night at All Seasons RV Stadium was the definition of a must-win game for the Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox.

The Gold Sox needed to win all four of their games this weekend to at least force a tie for the Horizon Air Summer Series championship, but a bid for the club's second-ever division crown will fall short in 2009.

The Humboldt Crabs broke open a 3-3 tie in the top of the seventh with two runs and added two more in the ninth to defeat the Gold Sox 7-3 thanks to 12 hits and four Yuba-Sutter errors.

Yuba-Sutter (26-13) is still 5-4 all-time against the Crabs, but has lost its last three contests against the Arcata ballclub.

Manager Jack Johnson isn't fazed by the fact that his team will not win the conference title, but more because his team showed a lack of maturity against the Crabs on Thursday.

"We didn't do the little things tonight and showed a lot of youth," Johnson said. "It's not brain surgery to figure out we just need to make the plays. Right now we're making some young mistakes."

One of those mistakes resulted in two runs for the Crabs in the top of the seventh inning.

After tying up the game 3-3 in the sixth thanks to five consecutive hits, Humboldt loaded the bases to lead off the seventh.

Humboldt designated hitter Tommy Pavesi then hit a ball to right field that was dropped by Dan Brown, resulting in two runs for the Crabs.

Two more runs scored in the top of the ninth thanks to a fielding error by Adrian Perez at third base.

"The wins and losses come and go, but I'm more concerned about the way we played defensively," Johnson said. "We have to be able to catch the baseball, especially with runners in scoring position."

The Gold Sox looked solid early though, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning.

Christian Garcia started the scoring with a sacrifice fly to center, followed by an RBI double from Mikey Raudenbush and a base knock from Danny Black.

Yuba-Sutter right-hander Cris Rogers made his last start of the summer for Johnson and received the no-decision.

He went 5-plus innings, struck out six, didn't walk anybody and allowed three earned runs.

The three newest members of Yuba-Sutter's pitching staff all threw on Thursday in relief of Rogers and none of them fared too well.

After Rogers left with the bases loaded in the sixth, Colusa High product Matt Vedo allowed two consecutive hits and two runs.

Kendyle Blank picked up the loss after Brown's two-run error and Scott Greene allowed the two runs in the ninth.

"Out of the bullpen, we didn't pitch too well," Johnson said. "We made some mistakes with fastballs."

The pitching staff suffered yet another blow on Thursday with the news that closer Scott Harlan will be out for the rest of the summer with an elbow injury.

Johnson will bring in Yuba City High southpaw Jake Stassi this weekend to help booster the staff, but righty Trent Evins will start tonight's game against the Lodi Baseball Club.

Lodi won the Engelken Division with a 15-5 HASS record.

"We've shown signs of maturity and guys are starting to get better," Johnson said. "We did a lot of the little things wrong (tonight) and not enough of the big things to compensate for it."

• HUMBOLDT CRABS 7, GOLD SOX 3

• NEXT GAME: Today, 7 p.m., Gold Sox host Lodi Baseball Club