File photo – Eureka senior Rogan Bode

The Eureka Loggers and South Fork Cubs both bowed out of the North Coast Section baseball playoffs in the opening round on Tuesday.

Playing in the Division-3 bracket, the No. 12 seeded Eureka boys fell 6-1 at No. 5 Bishop O’Dowd, while in Division 5, No. 15 South Fork lost 9-0 at No. 2 University.

South Fork head coach Chris Contreras felt his team was competitive, but little mistakes ended up costing them.

“I felt we could have competed with that team,” he said of the No. 2 seeds. “We definitely were not overmatched. Very comparable, it just comes down to little things.”

Justin Freitas got the start on the mound, with Jonah Wansick and Makani Buck-Zulim pitching in relief.

At the plate, the ever-consistent Broc Contreras was 1-for-2 with a double, two walks and two stolen bases, while Wesley Way was 1-for-1 with two walks and Wansick was 1-for-3.

The home team took control of the game with six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.

“It took a little time for our bats to get hot, but it was a little too late,” Chris Contreras said. “I was happy that we minimized strikeouts this game, but of course one bad inning from multiple errors cost us the game.”

The Loggers, meanwhile, took an early lead at Bishop O’Dowd when Ean Savage scored in the top of the first inning, but the Dragons responded with runs in four of the opening six innings to gradually take control of the game.

“The boys played well, their pitcher was just better today,” Eureka head coach Shannon Rodgers said. 

Savage and Seth Grammer each finished with a base hit in the loss, while Cooper Ohlsen and Caden Vance each pitched three-plus innings.

File photo – The South Fork Cubs

File photo – The Eureka Loggers