File photo – The Ferndale Wildcats

The Ferndale Wildcats posted their second one-run win over a Big 5 team on Tuesday, defeating Del Norte 3-2 at Ferndale.

The victory keeps the impressive Wildcats undefeated on the season, as they improved to 6-0-1.

Ferndale also defeated Fortuna recently 5-4.

Parker Prior got the win on the mound in relief on Tuesday, as the Cats broke a 0-0 deadlock with three runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Prescott Langer got the start on the hill for the home team and matched Del Norte standout Preston Daniels early on.

Langer allowed just one hit and struck out four in three scoreless innings, before Prior took over and closed out the game, allowing two earned runs on four hits and striking out four in four innings.

After Daniels left the game, the Wildcats went to work on offense.

Trent Titus led off the sixth inning with a double and would score moments later on a Prior RBI single.

Tanner Pidgeon then walked and stole second, before Prior scored on an Austin Michel sac fly to make it 2-0.

Levi Dixon then hit a ground ball to score Pidgeon for what would be the winning run.

“It was probably our best overall game,” Ferndale head coach Justin Andersen said. “We’re still relying on our pitching to keep it close, but it was a good game against a quality opponent and a quality pitcher.

“We’re just trying to keep building momentum.”

The Ferndale bats racked up six hits in the win, one each by Titus, Prior, Pidgeon, Dixon, Jonah Anderson and Jarrett Smith.

Daniels continued to impress for the visitors, as he has all season, and threw five scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts.

“He was very effective,” Andersen said.

Del Norte’s Anthony Cardenas also remained hot at the plate and finished 3-for-4.

Unfortunately for the visitors, they were unable to take advantage of several base runners.

“We left 10 or 11 on base and it’s hard to win a game doing that,” said Del Norte head coach Jeff Cook said.

With the loss, the Warriors dropped to 4-3-1.

While the rest of the Big 5 teams open conference play this week, the Warriors will have an opening-week bye and are scheduled to travel to the Hidden Valley tournament, opening against Marshfield on Thursday.

The Wildcats, meanwhile, will try to continue their impressive run when they resume the Little 4 in a doubleheader at South Fork, which is scheduled for Friday.

“We’re going to have a big test against South Fork,” Andersen said.

The Cats are 2-0 in conference.

Ukiah 6, McKinleyville 2

The Wildcats scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on the way to beating the Panthers at Ukiah on Monday.

The home team took advantage of a couple of McKinleyville errors and had five hits in the big inning on their way to improving to 7-2 with the win.

“We had one bad inning that really hurt us,” McKinleyville head coach Mike Dobrec said. “It was a good game. They’re a good team, and you can’t give a good team extra outs.”

With the loss, the Mack boys dropped to 4-3 on the season.

Tenoch Tapia led the Panthers at the plate and went 2-for-3, while Hunter Carper continued his impressive freshman season by going 1-for-3 with a double and scoring both of his team’s runs.

Evan Fraser also was 1-for-2 with an RBI.

Jackson Kelly was solid on the mound for the Panthers, allowing just one hit in three innings work, with Branson Dobrec and Joe Tanno each seeing time in relief.

The Panthers are scheduled to open the Big 5 with a three-game series against Fortuna this week, including a single game at McKinleyville High on Wednesday, although it remains unlikely that game will go ahead with the forecast rain.

A scheduled Wednesday game between Arcata and Eureka has been pushed back to Thursday, although that could be in jeopardy as well.