Huskies pull away late against Eureka to keep title hopes alive

By barstoolfanatics on May 2, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

File photo – The Fortuna Huskies

The Huskies kept their hopes of a Big 5 championship alive with an 11-4 win over Eureka at Fortuna on Wednesday.

With the win, the Huskies improved to 7-3 in the Big 5 and they remain one win back of conference leaders Del Norte, which improved to 8-2 with an 11-0 win at Arcata.

Both teams will close out conference play later this week, with the Warriors hosting the Tigers in a doubleheader in Crescent City on Saturday and the Huskies concluding with a doubleheader at Eureka on Friday afternoon.

Wednesday’s performance was far from perfect, but the Fortuna girls held their nerve and rallied from an early one-run deficit to take care of business.

In the second inning, the Huskies took a 3-1 lead on a two-run single by Harmoni Linhares, but a young Eureka team showed plenty of fight in a back-and-forth game and re-took the lead with three more runs in the top of the fifth.

With their championship hopes hanging in the balance, however, the Huskies showed plenty of fight themselves and racked up eight runs on four hits in the bottom half of the inning to end the game as a contest.

Fortuna sophomore Isabel Sanchez continued to impress on the way to the victory in the circle and gave up just three hits.

Sanchez also struck out an impressive 14 Eureka batters, ending five of the seven innings with a strikeout.

Eureka senior pitcher Kaitlin Giacone has also impressed this spring on a a young Eureka team that features 11 freshmen and sophomores on a roster of 14.

Giacone gave up five hits and five walks and struck out four, while continually keeping “the Husky batters off balance,” according to the Fortuna coaches.

Linhares led the Huskies at the plate and finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs, while Olivia Hayes, Evelyn Little and Hailey Thompson each also had a hit and an RBI.

File photo – Bailey Brown

Olivia Scilacci also had an RBI and scored twice, while Kadence Mace added two RBIs and scored a run.

The win was the fifth straight for the Fortuna girls.

Bailey Brown, Natalie Conrad and Cassandra Breazeal each had a base hit for the Loggers, who continue to show signs of improvement despite dropping to 1-9 in the Big 5.

Brown’s hit went deep to left field and almost cleared the fence.

“She’s solid,” Eureka head coach Cheyenne King said of the standout sophomore, who has quickly established herself as a key figure on the team in her two high school seasons. “She’s definitely one of my team leaders.”

The two teams will conclude their three-game series at Washington Elementary on Friday in a doubleheader that has been moved up from Saturday because of the weather forecast.

Game one is set for 1 p.m.