Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] The race for this year's Big 5 championship in softball is shaping up to be one of the most exciting in recent years, and with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season, four of the five schools remain in contention. Hello and welcome to this week's KMUD News Sports Report. I'm Ray Hamill with Humboldt sports.com we'll have more on the exciting Big 5 in just a moment as we take a look at all of the big local sports stories of the week, including some Big five baseball news, some some Little four baseball and softball, some college baseball and softball updates, some high school track and field news, and why this weekend will be another big one for the HDNL swimmers. But first up, this year's Big Five in softball is one of the most competitive and wide open in years with four of the five schools in contention for the league title as we head into the final two weeks of action, not only is the race for the championship one of the most intriguing and exciting in years, but most of the conference games have gone right down to the wire and that continued to be the case once again this past last week with multiple games decided by the narrowest of margins. On Saturday, conference leaders McKinleyville swept a doubleheader at Arcata with five of their players combining to hit seven home runs on the day, including two each by seniors Liana Stumpf and McKenna Sargent. The Panthers won a pair of high scoring games by scores of 168 and 185 and improved to 5. One in the standings with six games remaining. However, three other schools remain right on their heels. Three time defending conference champion Del Norte also played doubleheader at Eureka on Saturday and swept winning 81 and 84 in nine innings. The action continued on Wednesday with two more games. Del Norte made it three straight wins with a 75 victory at Arcata. The Tigers showed a lot of resilience, rallying from an early 51 deficit with four late runs to force extra innings. But the warriors would have the last say, scoring twice in the top of the eight on the way to securing an all important victory that keeps them in contention. One of the stories of the year in local softball has been the turnaround in fortunes of the Eureka Loggers. After going winless last year, the Loggers could be the most improved team in the area this spring. They quickly responded to the weekend disappointment with A hard fought one run victory over Fortuna on Wednesday, winning 2:1. Heading into four weekend games, four of the five schools in the Big Five have either four or five wins each. The Panthers lead the way with a record of 5. 1, followed by Del Norte at 5 and 3, Fortuna at 4 3, Eureka at 44 and Arcata at 0 and 7. The conference leaders will head to Fortuna for a key doubleheader on Saturday while Eureka plays two games at Arcata and Del Norte has a weekend bye in Big Five baseball. Meanwhile, the McKinleyville Panthers appear to be the team to beat. The high flying McKinleyville boys are 60 in the Big Five after sweeping a doubleheader at Arcata on Saturday to close out the first half of their conference schedule. The Panthers won 9. 3 and 6. 2, stretching their winning streak to eight straight and improving to 151 on the season. Also on Saturday, Eureka hosted Del Norte and swept a doubleheader, winning a pair of one run games 21 and 5. 4. Big 5 action continued on Wednesday with Del Norte traveling to arcata and winning 8 to 3. The Loggers are McKinleyville's closest challengers and are 5. 2 in conference play, followed by Del Norte at 5 and 3, Arcata at 1. 6 and Fortuna at 0 7. The league teams will play two more doubleheaders on Saturday. The Panthers will try to keep their impressive run going at Fortuna while Eureka will try to keep their title ambitions on track at Arcata in the Little form. Meanwhile, the weather played havoc with the schedule this week with all six of Tuesday's baseball and softball games postponed. The action did resume on Thursday and it was a good day for the Saint Bernards boys. The Crusaders realistically all but wrapped up the conference championship with a 14. 5 win at first.
[00:04:04] With the victory, Saint Bernards improved to 70 in the Little Four and moved three wins clear of the chasing pack with five games remaining. The Crusaders also improved to 160 on the season. In Thursday's other Little Four game, the Hoopa boys got their first conference win of the spring, beating South Fork 13 6. Ferndale is now 4. 3 in conference, followed by South Fork at 2. 5 and Hoopa at 1. 6 in local college baseball. Meanwhile, College of the Redwoods got a boost with a 43 victory over Siskiyous last weekend, but would drop the second game of a two game stand, falling 8. 4. Sior is now 3 and 20 in the Golden Valley Conference and 5 and 31 overall. It was a busy week for the College of the Redwoods softball team, which played eight games over six days. After dropping two games at Siskiyous on Friday, the Sioux women swept double headers at Yuba on Saturday and two more at Bute on Monday. Redwoods closed out the spring season with two home games against Yuba on Wednesday and split, taking the opener 102 before dropping game 24 1. Sior finished 713 in the Golden Valley Conference and tied for fourth in the standings and was 14211 overall. The Cal Poly Humboldt softball team was also in action last weekend but lost all four of its games at Cal State San Marcos, the number three team in the nation. The Jacks dropped to 1012 in conference and 1924 overall. The Humboldt women are back in action this weekend, hosting four games against rival Cheek State in local track and field. The HDNL season is heating up. The league athletes travel to Del Norte for the third HDN meet of the spring on Wednesday. It was a good day for Eureka speedster Elizabeth Rominger who won both the 100 and 200 meter sprints. It was also a good day for Arcata senior Skyler Kahlenberg, who won both the shot put and discus. Kahlenberg also broke a 55 year old league record in the shot put at the weekend Brookings Harbour Rotary invitational meet, throwing 61ft 11 inches and rounding out another busy week in local sports, this weekend will be another big one for the HDNL swimmers. Teams from Eureka, Arcata and Del Norte will be joined by Fort Bragg and Mendocino for a meet at Cal Poly Humboldt for the second straight weekend on Saturday. The meet is the final chance for the local swimmers to qualify for this year's North Coast Section Championships and gets underway at 3pM and that's this week's KMUD News Sports Report. Until next time, I'm Ray Hamill with humboldtsports. Com.
