Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from Tuesday’s game in Eureka.
By Ray Hamill — Arcata and Eureka served up another exciting one-run game in softball on Tuesday to close out a fun three-game conference-opening series between the two Big 5 rivals.
After splitting a doubleheader at Arcata High on Saturday — with both games ending 7-6 — the two teams faced off in the series rubber match at Washington Elementary School and once again it went right down to the wire.
And for the second time in three games, the Tigers rallied in the sixth inning on the way to pulling out a 5-4 win.
“Today was a great team win,” said Arcata head coach Steve Sarchett, whose team improved to 2-1 in the Big 5 and 4-2 overall. “We did the little things today.”
After winning just one game all of last year, this young Tigers team is playing with a lot of belief right now.
They trailed 4-2 going into the sixth inning but dug deep to tie the game with a pair of runs.
Then in the seventh, the Tigers struck again to take a one-run lead and they made it stick, although the Loggers made things interesting into the bottom half of the inning, stranding the tying run at third.
Sophomore Josie Cunningham had a big hit in the top of the sixth and would score the tying run moments later on a passed ball.
The Arcata girls carried the momentum into the seventh inning.
Junior Lily Cunningham led off the inning with a stand-up double and was brought home on a Nallia Meyer base hit to right field for what would be the winning run.
Meyer, a freshman, has made an immediate impact at the high school level and has been instrumental in two late rallies over the past few days, also scoring the winning run in the series opener at Arcata on Saturday.
Peyton Miller also had a key hit early in the game and scored Arcata’s first run, while Jenna Rentreria had two hits.
Pitchers Shia Sarchett and Riley Houston combined in the circle, and both young players impressed, with Houston getting the win in relief.
Both pitchers got plenty of help from their defense.
“Today was all about playing defense well and getting outs,” Steve Sarchett said.
Eureka senior Kaitlin Giacone also pitched well for the Loggers, who dropped to 1-2 in the Big 5 and 1-2 overall.
“I can’t take anything away from Eureka’s pitcher. She did a fine job keeping us off balance,” The Arcata coach added. “Conversely, our two pitchers did a great job keeping the ball on the ground and not giving up a lot of free bases. Our defense backed them up.”
The Tigers will go into their conference bye sitting atop the Big 5 standings.
“I feel with every day we get a bit better and our work is starting to pay off,” the Arcata coach added.
“I’m proud of our team and the job they did today.”
Unfortunately, no stats were available for Eureka.
Humboldt Sports reached out to Eureka head coach Cheyenne King, who did not respond.
