Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] After a weekend that saw them sweep the Medford Rogues and receive some help from a league rival, the Humboldt Crabs qualified for this week's Pacific Empire League Championship Series. 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 Crabs in just a moment as we take a look at all of the big local sports stories of the week, including why it was a memorable week for one local American Legion baseball team, which athletes have been named the Humboldt Sports High School Athletes of the Year, how local bare knuckle fighter Ryan Peterson fared at last weekend's big fight night in Philadelphia and how one local driver continues to dominate at the Redwood Acres Raceway. But first up, the Humble Crabs took care of business in their final league series of the regular season last weekend, sweeping all three of their games against the Medford Rogues. And that, coupled with some help from a league rival was enough to qualify the team for this year's Pacific Empire League Championship Series.
[00:01:03] The Crabs came into last weekend in third place in the league standings and one spot out of qualifying for the big championship series. But they took care of business against the Rogues to give themselves a fighting chance, taking the opener 63 on Friday night and following that with a 9 to 2 win on Saturday and a hard fought 10 to 7 win on Sunday afternoon. And with the Lincoln Potters dropping one of their weekend games against the West Coast Kings, that meant the Crabs leapfrogged the Potters into second the to qualify for the league's second annual Championship Series.
[00:01:38] The Red Hot Crabs continued to roll in the championship series opener against top seed the Healdsburg Prune packers, pulling out a 108 win at the Arcata Ballpark on Tuesday night to take control of the best of three series.
[00:01:53] Tyler Howard played a key role in the victory. The inform Howard finished with multiple hits for the third straight game, going 3 for 4 with a home run, a double, a walk and three RBIs. The game itself was back and forth. The Crabs struck first and opened up a four run lead after two innings. The visitors however, would battle back to tie things up with four runs in the top of the fifth before the Crabs added four more runs in the bottom half of the inning. Once again the packers battled back scoring four more runs in the sixth to leave the two league rivals tied eight to eight. But the Crabs retook the lead with another run in the bottom half of that inning and held the packers scoreless down the stretch to seal the the series then moved to Healdsburg for Game 2 on Thursday night, which the Prune packers won 102 to leave the two clubs deadlocked again going into Friday night's Winner Takes all showdown in Healdsburg in local American Legion baseball action. Meanwhile, the Humboldt Eagles 17 youth closed out their summer season with a big showing at last weekend's Class A State Tournament in Fairfield. The Eagles won all six of their tournament games on the way to clinching the state title, including a 94 win over Napa Valley in Monday's championship game, which was Napa's first loss in tournament play. According to Eagles head coach John Downey, the tournament win was a culmination of all of the hard work the players put in over the entire summer and a testament to how dedicated they've been. The impressive Eagles offense scored a total of 47 runs on 53 hits over the six wins and had six players receive all Tournament recognition. Kyle Giaconi, Alex Jimenez, Garrett Levitt, Ryder Mitchell and Braden Burmers were all named to the All Tournament team for the local club, while Scotty Brogan received an honorable mention. Ceccone capped an impressive summer with another strong showing on the mound in the championship game, holding the Napa Valley bats in check for much of the game and striking out six in four and two third innings. Mitchell led the way at the plate in the final and was 2 for 2.
[00:04:02] Switching gears the best local high school athletes and teams were honoured last weekend with with the announcement of this year's Humboldt Sports Athletes of the Year, Ferndale junior Tinley Pigeon was named Co Little 4 Girls Athlete of the Year along with St Bernard senior Leila Florvillis, while Hoopa senior Brandon Romero took home the award for the Little 4 Boys Athlete of the Year. Del Norte seniors Colton Shad and Tacynte Steinrock were both also honored, taking home the Big five Boys and Girls Athlete of the Year awards respectively, and rounding out the end of year awards, the Del Norte boys wrestling team was named Team of the Year after winning a seventh straight HDNL title and placing third overall in the entire north coast section, while Del Norte Wrestling head coach Clinton Shad was named the High School Coach of the Year.
[00:04:53] In local fighting news, meanwhile, Hydesville's Ryan Peterson traveled to Philadelphia over the weekend to headline a Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship Fight Night, but he lost on a second round TKO to Dustin Paige. It was Peterson's first BKFC loss as he dropped to 2 1.
[00:05:12] And rounding out another big week in local sports, Fortuna's Brandon Barnwell continued his big summer season at the Redwood Acres Raceway on Saturday night. The impressive Barnwell won a fifth straight main event in Late Models action, edging rival Joe Bonomini on his way to taking the checkered flag.
[00:05:31] The victory cements Barnwell's lead at the top of the season standings with three nights of racing action remaining this season.
[00:05:39] Saturday night also saw the debut of the Dirt 4 Bangers division at the local raceway. And that's this week's KMudda News sports report. Until next time, I'm Ray Hamill with Humboldt sports dot com.
