The Alameda Merchants and San Francisco Seals combined together last winter to form a strong independent summer baseball team. In doing so, they committed to the idea of playing several "split squad" games during the summer - where half of the team will play in one location and half of the team will play in another location against another team at the same time.

June 8th was the first time the Merchants/Seals attempted this during the 2016 summer. While the Seals squad went on the road and beat the Soloano Mudcats 7-3 in 12 innings, the Merchants stayed home at the College of Alameda and played a formidable California Collegiate League (CCL) team - The Menlo Park Legends.

The game between the Merchants and Legends started out as a pitchers duel - as Merchants hurler Trey Jeans (Seminole State) matched the Legends starter Jameson Kruger (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) pitch for pitcher. After three innings, the score was 0-0. After a fielder's choice and sacrifice fly in the 4th, the Legends took an early 2-0 lead. Later in the 6th, the Legends tacked on another run as Sean Watkins (Loyola Marymount) scored on an RBI single. The Legends had what appeared to be a comfortable 3-0 lead. The Merchants started to chip away in the bottom of the 6th, as Marcus Williams (Cal State East Bay) and Michael Jenkerson (Hawaii-HIlo) hit back to back doubles to bring the score to 3-1. Jeans pitched well through 4 innings - surrendering only 2 runs. Conner McLaughlin (Indiana Tech) was strong in relief - giving the Merchants a chance as he pitched 4 solid innings of relief - only surrendering 1 run to the Legends.

Then came the bottom of the 7th. The Merchants took out a hammer and hit the Legends on the head with it.

The Merchants didn't have to do get on the board in the bottom of the 7th. After three walks, the bases would be loaded for Williams. He singled in Corey Henderson (Mendo JC) to make the score 3-2. Jenkerson then drew a walk to score Alex Felder (Grambling State) to tie the score at 3. After a single by Dakota Conners (Cal State East Bay) that drove in Austin Johnson (Nebraska) and Williams, Drew Mount (De Anza JC) hit a sac fly that drove in Jenkerson. When the dust settled - the Merchants had a 6-3 lead going into the 8th.

After Conner McLaughlin sat down 3 of the next four hitters he faced (he walked one), the Merchants brought in Javon Rigsby (Seminole State) for the save. Everything looked great for the Merchants - as Rigsby sat the first two hitters he faced down with a strikeout and groundout. That's where the wheels came off for the hard throwing right hander from Texarkana, Texas.

Rigsby walked the next three batters he faced to force in a run and make the score 6-4.  That brought up Sean Watkins - who was a Freshman All American at Loyola Marymount in 2015. With the Legends down to their last out of the game, and down by three runs - Watkins hit a HIGH chopper to Marcus Williams at 3rd. Williams was able to get a glove on it, but the ball had forced Williams to back up and fire a long throw across the diamond. The throw was off-line and allowed all the Legends on base to score. On what could have been the final out of the game for the Merchants, the Legends score three runs on an error to make the score 7-6.  The Merchants couldn't muster any offense in the bottom of the 9th and had to swallow a tough luck loss.

Cal State East Bay teammates Williams and Dakota Conners were a combined 5 for 8 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored.

The Merchants will play the Legends two more times this week. Game two of the series will be at the College of Alameda again on June 9th at 6:00 pm. The third game of the four game series will be Thursday the 10th at Colts Field at Canada College.