Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Arcata Tigers kept their Charles Lakin tournament hopes alive with a walk-off win over Del Norte on Wednesday.
By Ray Hamill — The Tigers aren’t quite done just yet.
A disappointing spring for a young Arcata team looked likely to end this week, but a dramatic 3-2 walk-off win over Del Norte at Arcata High on Wednesday, coupled with a Fortuna loss to Eureka, keeps their hopes of a postseason berth alive.
If the Arcata boys can sweep their final regular-season doubleheader at Del Norte on Saturday and Eureka sweeps two games against Fortuna, then the Tigers and Huskies would be tied for third place in the final standings and the third and final Big 5 Charles Lakin tournament spot.
“We’ve just got to continue to battle,” Arcata head coach Troy Ghisetti said.
They certainly did that on Wednesday.
After giving up two unearned runs in the top of the first inning, the Tigers trailed for much of the game.
However, they would rally to tie the game with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
They then stranded runners in scoring position in both the fifth and sixth innings before Ben Lukens scored the winning run in the seventh on a well-played Alex Greenway bunt that resulted in another Del Norte error.
Lukens walked to lead off the inning and stole his way to second before Greenway’s bunt and the error allowed him reach home plate for the walk-off victory.
“It was going to be a bang bang play either way,” Ghisetti said of the bunt. “And we were able to score from second. The kids stayed focused.”
With errors also leading to Arcata’s game-tying runs in the fifth, remarkably the home team managed just one hit all game.
Lukens got the start on the mound and threw six solid innings.
The junior pitcher did not give up an earned run, while walking five and striking out eight.
Tanner Kees got the win in relief, throwing the final inning and striking out two and walking one.
“We gave up two unearned runs in the first inning and the kids didn’t bow their heads, they kept battling,” Ghisetti said.
The win ended a five-game conference losing streak for the Tigers, who improved to 2-8 in the Big 5.
Del Norte dropped to 1-9.
No final stats were immediately available for the Warriors, who saw their slim hopes of a Lakin tournament berth disappear with the defeat.
“Same old story,” Del Norte head coach Jeff Cook said. “Left too may runners on base (seven or eight). Too many errors.”
