Little 4 baseball, softball heats up

SPORTS BRIEFS

Roller derby returns; Ferndale to honor Crab

Junior Prescott Langer stands on the mound for the Ferndale Wildcats last week against St. Bernard’s. Both Ferndale and St. Bernard’s picked up Little 4 wins on Tuesday. DYLAN MCNEILL — TIMES-STANDARD, FILE

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By Dylan McNeill

dmcneill@times-standard.com

Ferndale, St. Bernard’s secure wins

Little 4 baseball action continued on Tuesday with Ferndale and St. Bernard’s picking up road wins. The Wildcats got a 12-4 win over Hoopa Valley while the Crusaders defeated South Fork 14-1.

The win moves St. Bernard’s to 3-0 in league play, while Ferndale picks up their first Little 4 win of the season, after falling twice to the Crusaders last week. Ferndale, Hoopa and South Fork are all tied at 1-2 after the Warriors and Cubs split their two games last week.

After a scoreless first two innings in Hoopa, Ferndale went on to score in each of the final five innings, which included a five-run sixth inning to blow things open on the road. Ferndale totaled 14 hits and drew another seven walks while taking advantage of five Hoopa errors.

St. Bernard’s didn’t waste any time taking control of the game Tuesday in Miranda, scoring four runs in the top of the first and adding another three in the third inning to push their lead to 7-0. St. Bernard’s used five different pitchers, splitting up the load in the lopsided game, but it was junior Michael Manzi who received the win after going 2.1 innings of one-run ball.

Senior Tyler Maples led the Crusaders at the plate, going 4-4 with two doubles and four runs batted in. Manzi and sophomore Mateo Reiman each added two hits, with Manzi scoring four runs in the comfortable Crusader win.

St. Bernard’s and Ferndale also began their softball league play facing off on Tuesday, with the Crusaders winning both games of their road doubleheader, 14-0 and 12-2, in a dominant showing for the defending league champs.

The Crusaders’ softball team is tied at 2-0 atop the Little 4 with South Fork, as the Cubs took two games from Hoopa last week. South Fork got 6-2 and 7-1 wins over the Warriors and will now prepare for a doubleheader against St. Bernard’s in Samoa on Thursday.Ferndale to honor collegiate baseball coach

Ferndale announced who will be this year’s honoree at the fourth annual Joe Oeschger Day later this summer, as the town will recognize Ferndale High alum and current Sacramento State baseball head coach Reggie Christiansen.

Christiansen graduated from Ferndale High School in 1993 and then played for the Humboldt Crabs in 1995 and 1996 before entering the coaching realm, even returning in 2000 to coach the Crabs. Christiansen coached at Menlo College and the University of Kansas before taking a head coaching position with South Dakota State University in 2005.

After three seasons with South Dakota, Christiansen began coaching at Sacramento State, spending two years as an assistant before becoming the head coach before the 2011 season. He’s now in his 15th season with the Hornets and has accumulated a 444-376 record with the school, while leading them to three conference tournament championships. Christiansen was chosen to serve as the Team USA bench coach for the 2023 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team.

Ferndale honored softball standout Hailey Dolcini, who was one of the best pitchers in H-DNL history in her time with the Fortuna Huskies before playing at UC Riverside, Fresno State and eventually Texas, where Dolcini helped lead the Longhorns to the Women’s College World Series.

This year’s Oeschger Day will be held on Aug. 9 at Oeschger Field in Firemen’s Park in Ferndale.

Humboldt Roller Derby returns Saturday

Saturday will be the last chance to catch the Humboldt Roller Derby for the next five months, with the Humboldt Roller Derby hosting Auburn’s Outlaws Roller Derby for a doubleheader at Redwood Acres starting at 6 p.m.

The doubleheader will be the third of six home Humboldt Roller Derby events this year, with the next one not coming until September 27th. The action begins with the Humboldt Roller Derby’s Root Force facing Auburn’s B team before their A Team faces Humboldt Roller Derby’s Redwood Rollers.

Doors open on Saturday at 5 p.m. with tickets available online, at www.humboldtrollerderby.com, or in-person at STIL in Eureka or at the Arcata Wildberries Market. If you can’t make it down to Franceschi Hall, Saturday’s games will be broadcasted live on 96.7FM.

Dylan McNeill can be reached at 707-441-0526.