There are a couple of teams left in the North Coast Section playoffs \u2014 St. Bernard\u2019s baseball and Eureka softball.<\/p>\n
Baseball<\/p>\n
The St. Bernard\u2019s baseball team, after a first-round bye in the North Coast Section Division 6 Playoffs, opened quarterfinal action at home Saturday as the top seed, besting Pinole Valley 5-3. Michael Manzi started and gave up three runs in the opening two innings, as the Crusaders went down 3-2 after not playing well behind their pitcher, according to head coach Matt Tomlin. But SB rallied behind the strength of a three-run fifth inning to ultimately take the result. Saehwon Kwan was solid in relief for the home team, pitching three innings to earn the victory with the only blemish a walk, striking out two. Manzi had struck out seven in his four innings.<\/p>\n
Sophomore Henry Hinrichs led the Crusaders at the plate in his return from injury, going 2-for-3 with a double, two runs scored, and a run batted in. Maxwell Collins also had a solid game, reaching base in all three of his plate appearances with two walks, a hit, and a run.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaehwon was the superstar; he threw three hitless, scoreless innings to get us the victory,\u201d said Tomlin. Hinrichs got credit for being outstanding at the plate and also making a diving play at third base that saved a run at third base. He later moved over to second for four innings and turned a double play. \u201cHe was the position player of the game,\u201d said Tomlin.<\/p>\n
Hinrichs is still suffering from soreness from his collision with Crusader first baseman Luke Brunton on a pop-up into shallow right field against Eureka in the Lakin Tournament, but \u201creally gave us a spark,\u201d according to Tomlin. \u201cI thought Michael also pitched well and got us our of some jams in the first and second inning, when we didn\u2019t play great defense behind him. He was able to get some strikeouts to get out of big jams.\u201d Manzi received kudos for his work at catcher as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cHenry really played well the whole game,\u201d added Tomlin. \u201cAnd the last three weeks, he\u2019s been on fire prior to the injury and now that he\u2019s back, picking up right where he left off. He\u2019s definitely playing good baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, SB will take on No. 5 seed Newark Memorial in the section semifinals on Wednesday at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a big challenge,\u201d said Tomlin. \u201cThey\u2019ve got a really good pitcher who\u2019ll throw about 88 miles per hour on his fastball. He\u2019s struck out a lot of guys, in 80 innings around 120. He\u2019s only walked 15, and we\u2019re facing a big-time college prospect tomorrow. We\u2019re going to have our work cut out for us, but do our best to prepare for the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Softball<\/p>\n
Eureka High remains the only softball squad standing from the Humboldt-Del Norte League, as they won their quarterfinal opener against No. 8 San Domenico on Saturday by the final of 13-1 in five innings in the North Coast Section Division 5 bracket. Mackenze Wolff was the stalwart in the circle for the No. 1 seed Loggers, going all five innings and allowing just the one unearned run on four hits, with three strikeouts and one walk.<\/p>\n
Bailey Brown went 2-for-3 at the plate for Eureka with a double and three runs scored, and Macy Secor also went 2-for-3 with a double and three runs scored, adding three runs batted in. Megan Secor was 1-for-1 with two walks, a stolen base, a run, and an RBI, and Jaycee Childress was 1-for-2 with a walk, a triple, a run scored, and two RBIs. Kylee Secor and Ella Moxon both had a hit, a run, and an RBI.<\/p>\n
Eureka took a 5-1 lead after the first inning before sealing the contest with an eight-run fourth. The Loggers next host Moreau Catholic on Tuesday evening in the semifinals. Head coach Bob Secor was not available for comment by press time.<\/p>\n
![\"Hailey](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SOUTHFORKSOFTBALL-01.jpg\")
Hailey Shepherd swings in early-season action. Shehad two hits in South Fork’s final playoff game. (Phoebe Becker \u2014 Contributed)
\n![\"Molly](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FERNDALESOUTHFORKSOFTBALL-01.jpeg\")
Molly Perkins takes off from the bag for South Fork as Ferndale’s Quinn Stokesberry plays defense. Perkins had one base knock in the Cubs’ final game Saturday against Moreau Catholic. (Ken McCanless- Times-Standard)<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the South Fork softball team saw its playoff journey end Saturday at the hands of No. 5 Moreau Catholic in a home game for the Cubs, 9-2, also in the NCS Division 5 bracket. The No. 4 seed Cubs got an early home run, but couldn\u2019t sustain the positive momentum, though they snapped a five-game scoreless streak by Mariner pitching. Mackenzie Coleman got the early solo shot for South Fork, Hailey Shepherd had two hits and scored a run, and Makenzie Brewer had two knocks, but outside of that, the Cub bats were largely quiet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe struggled, we were kind of swinging at bad pitches, weren\u2019t really focusing in the box on what we should be swinging at,\u201d said Cub head coach Lisa Todd. \u201cWe\u2019d get girls on, and leave them stranded. We just weren\u2019t producing enough runs, and I think we had 13 strikeouts\u2026 I thought Mackenzie (with her first-inning home run) would set the tone for our hitting, and we just didn\u2019t follow suit.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Leila Coleman did a good job in the circle against a hard-hitting team (four of the nine runs were earned, as Coleman gave up 12 hits and struck out five while walking one). She was satisfied with her outfield and defensive play, but saw the opposition net two home runs and make use of hitting into the gaps. Moreau plated three in the third inning, two in the fifth, and four in the sixth. They were moved down to Division 4 from the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we gave it our best shot, if we would\u2019ve hit better, we would\u2019ve had a better outcome,\u201d said Todd. \u201cBut they were a good team, and I\u2019m proud of them for how they played, holding their own and getting as far as we did\u2026 I\u2019m proud of the girls, we worked hard all year, league champs for the second year in a row, and proud of what we accomplished. I think next year we\u2019ll be just as strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
-Ken McCanless can be reached at 707-441-0526.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are a couple of teams left in the North Coast Section playoffs \u2014 St. Bernard\u2019s baseball and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2178,3263,25842,853,1358,2536,2328,2304,4,2305,2303,169,7164,38737,38738,185],"class_list":["post-709572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-baseball","tag-california","tag-high-school-sports","tag-humboldt-county","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-local-sports","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-north-coast","tag-northern-california","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116643071799491901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}