File photo – The St. Bernard’s Crusaders lost two games at the Fort Bragg tournament on Friday.

The Arcata Tigers and McKinleyville Panthers are both involved in one-run games on Friday as they each continue to build some momentum ahead of conference play.

The Tigers are in action at the Fort Bragg tournament and defeated Healdsburg 4-3 in nine innings on the opening day.

The Panthers played a non-tournament game at Foothill and lost 4-3.

The Hoopa boys were also in action at the Fort Bragg tournament and dropped a pair of games, falling 10-0 to the host school and 8-2 to Point Arena.

The Warriors are now 1-4.

The St. Bernard’s Crusaders also traveled to Fort Bragg and dropped two tournament games, falling 6-1 to Durham and 7-5 to Healdsburg.

The Del Norte Warriors, meanwhile, were in action at the Yreka tournament and made it two straight wins with a 9-8 victory over Las Plumas to go to 2-2-1 on the season.

The Warriors played a second tournament game against Mt. Shasta. No score was immediately available.

Sophomore Tanner Kees continued his very impressive start to the new season for the Tigers and finished 3-for-5 in a back-and-forth game with Healdsburg.

Kees, who also impressed in last week’s St. Bernard’s tournament, singled in teammate Alex Greenway from second with a base hit in the ninth inning.

“He’s just been solid all-around, defensively and offensively,” Arcata head coach Troy Ghisetti said of the Tigers catcher. 

Junior Anthony Ebert also had a good day in the win and finished 2-for-4 with two home runs, including one in the opening inning to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

Healdsburg responded with a pair of home runs in the third to take a 2-1 lead, but the Tigers would tie things up with one run in the fourth.

The Greyhounds would re-take the lead with a run in the fifth, before the Arcata boys tied things again with a run in the sixth.

Finn Warner and Jonah O’Brien each went 2-for-4 in the win, Ben Lukens was 1-for-2 and Greenway finished 1-for-3.

Lukens got the start on the mound and threw seven innings for a no-decision.

The junior pitcher struck out 13.

Kees threw 1.1 innings in relief and struck out four on the way to the win, with O’Brien striking out one in one inning.

Lukens also has impressed early in the season.

“Ben has been solid on the mound,” Ghisetti said. “He’s really grown mentally.”

The Tigers, who improved to 3-0-1, continue to show signs of improvement early in the new season.

“I thought our pitchers cleaned up some things for this game,” the head coach said. “But we had multiple base-running errors. But it’s early in the season. We’re still learning, and I thought they showed a tremendous amount of heart staying in the game and battling throughout the game.”

The Tigers will continue tournament play against Durham on Saturday morning and a win will send them into the afternoon championship game.

Foothill 4, McKinleyville 3

The Panthers pushed Foothill all the way in an exciting showdown on Friday, and they had the potential tying run at second in the final inning but were unable to bring him home.

With the loss, McKinleyville dropped to 2-2.

“I’m proud of the kids, the way they played today,” head coach Mike Dobrec said. “If we clean up a couple of mistakes out on the field, I know we win this game.”

The Panthers led 3-0 early, but the Cougars battled back to tie things up in the fourth and would score what turned out to be the winning run in the sixth.

McKinleyville had some balanced offense, with six different players finishing with one hit each.

Bryce Sargent, Kolbey Stolpe, Tyson Bragg, Hunter Carper and Jackson Kelly each finished 1-for-3, with Sargent scoring two runs.

Tenoch Tapia also was 1-for-4.

“It was a good game against a good team,” Dobrec said.

Evan Fraser got the start on the mound and pitched four good innings, giving up one earned run and striking out two in a no-decision.

Freshman Joe Tanno pitched two innings in relief and struck out two.

“It’s been a while since we were on the field, but I was real happy with the way the kids played,” Dobrec said.

The Panthers will try to get back to winning ways when they play a non-tournament doubleheader at University Prep on Saturday.

Durham 6, St. Bernard’s 1

Healdsburg 7, St. Bernard’s 5

The Crusaders’ early-season struggles continued with a pair of losses on Friday.

The Crusaders dropped to 1-6-1.

The SB boys managed just three hits against Durham, but it was just a one-run game going into the fifth inning, before the Trojans took control with four runs.

Tyler Hinrichs, Mateo Gutierrez and Carson Costa each had a hit in the loss, with Hinrichs scoring the team’s only run after being driven home by Gutierrez.

The Crusaders used four different pitchers.

St. Bernard’s led early against Healdsburg, opening up a 5-1 advantage in the top of the third, but the Greyhounds would respond with six runs in the bottom of the third to take control.

Once again, the SB bats managed just three hits, one each by Luke Brunton, Michael Fugate and Michael Manzi.

Fugate drove in two runs and Manzi one.

Brunton took the loss on the mound, giving up just one earned run on three hits and two walks in three innings and striking out three.

Hinrichs threw two hitless innings to close out and struck out two.

The Crusaders had three errors in each game.