As a 9-year-old, Andrew Crane was so fixated on winning a donut-eating contest that picked one off the street and ate it. He won. It is that kind of competitiveness that helped propel the junior transfer from the College of San Mateo to Wildcat of the Week honors in his Chico State baseball debut weekend.
The left fielder posted three multi-hit games and in the 25th-ranked Wildcats' four-game sweep of Saint Martin's scoring seven times and driving in six in the process. Crane cranked out eight hits in 14 at-bats and flashed an impressive combination of speed, power, eye, and throwing arm. Among his eight hits were a double and home run. He swiped a bag. He reached base via walk three times and via hit by pitch on another occasion, producing a slash line of .571/.667/.857 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage). In the outfield, the product of San Marcos High School made five catches and gunned down a Saints baserunner attempting to stretch a hit down the left-field line into a double.
Crane reached base four times in the Wildcats' 13-0 win Friday night, going 2-for-3 with a walk and hit-by-pitch. He went 2-for-4 with a double and a home run in Saturday's first game. He took on deep center field with his fifth-inning blast and cleared the wall over the 405-mark. Later in the inning, he ripped a two-run double to right-center field and accounted for four RBI in the Wildcats' 11-run rally. Crane drew a bases-loaded walk and later came around to score during an eight-run second inning in Saturday's nightcap. And he wrapped up the weekend with a four-hit day Sunday, going 4-for-5 with three runs scored, an RBI, and a stolen base.
Crane and the Wildcats will hit the road this weekend for a three-game series at Fresno Pacific, beginning with a single game Friday at 5 p.m. They'll play a doubleheader Saturday at noon. Chico State is back home to face Simpson University in its final non-conference games of the regular season on Wednesday, February 16. First pitch for the doubleheader is scheduled for noon.
