SANTA CLARA -- It was a bit anticlimactic, but the Humboldt Crabs rebounded from Friday's loss to the Maxim Yankees to close out the Best in the West Tournament on a positive note, hammering the Bay Area Giants 10-1 at Santa Clara University's Schott Stadium.

The Crabs finish the tournament at 2-2, with lopsided wins over the Giants and the Paso Robles Reds, and tough-to-swallow losses to the Maxim Yankee's and Fontanetti's Athletics.

”For the last couple of years we've come up one run short, but we had a good time,” said Crabs manager Matt Nutter.

The Crabs scored early and often on Saturday, putting runs on the board in the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. The bottom third of the lineup did much of the damage, with Max Fenske, Zack Smith and Derrick Chung each recording multi-RBI games. Fenske had the best overall day, going 3-for-5 and driving in three.

Meanwhile, Dakota Watts and three relievers combined to stifle the Giants' hitters. Watts picked up the win, allowing three hits over five innings before giving way to Kirby Morsching, Alex Leisten and Joe Oropeza.

The Giants' only run scored when Watts was called for a balk with runners on first and third and two outs in the

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fifth. If not for that run, the game would have ended by 10-run rule after the top of the seventh.

Despite not advancing to Sunday's championship round, and despite another heartbreaking loss to the Yankees, Nutter believes the team can take some positives away from the weekend. Many of the players took the loss to the Yankees pretty hard, which Nutter saw as a good thing.

”We are going to use (Friday) night as a step into the rest of the season,” he said. “Last year we lost that tough one but the guys really bonded after that and just came together. And there were some guys that were pretty upset (Friday) night, but that's good to see, that emotion. Hopefully we'll get home and put somethng together.”

They'll need to, because the month of July holds some tough competition for the Crabs, including the Sacramento Scorch (which won the Reno division of the Best of the West), the Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox and the Yankees, as well as the inaugural Western Tri-State Invitational Tournament at the Arcata Ballpark on July 18-20.

”We've told them, 'Here's where we are, let's see if by then we can get solid,' said Nutter. “All we got to do is play good baseball like we did (Friday) night.”