Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Hoopa girls won their playoff opener against Swett on Wednesday.

By Ray Hamill — Seven H-DNL teams played midweek games in the North Coast Section baseball and softball playoffs, with five of them successfully navigating their postseason openers.

On Tuesday night, the St. Bernard’s boys opened the Division-5 baseball tournament with a 6-4 come-from-behind win over Technology at Crusader Field to set up a quarterfinal showdown at Head-Royce in Oakland on Friday evening.

Also on Tuesday, the South Fork girls advanced to the Division-6 softball championship game with a comfortable 12-2 win over Point Arena.

The Cubs, who are seeded No. 2 in the bracket, will play at No. 1 California School for the Deaf in Friday’s championship game.

The Eureka boys, however, saw their season end in a 2-0 loss at Alhambra in the Division-3 baseball tournament.

The action continued for the H-DNL teams on Wednesday.

In baseball, the South Fork Cubs won their Division-6 opener, beating Victory Christian Academy 11-1 in five innings in Miranda.

The victory for the No. 2 seeds sets up a home semifinal against No. 3 Point Arena on Saturday afternoon and keeps the hopes of an all-local championship game against Ferndale alive.

The Wildcats, who are the top seeds in the bracket, had an opening-round bye and will play No. 4 San Francisco Waldorf in their semifinal on Saturday afternoon in Ferndale.

Also on Wednesday, the Hoopa girls won their Division-4 softball opener at home to Swett by a score of 11-5.

The win for the No. 7 seeds sets up a quarterfinal showdown against No. 2 Del Norte in Crescent City on Friday evening.

Mateo Gutierrez and the St. Bernard’s Crusaders won their playoff opener against Technology on Tuesday evening.

The Del Norte girls had an opening-round bye.

In Division 5 softball, the No. 6 St. Bernard’s girls also won their opener, beating The Bay School 14-4 in five innings in Samoa.

The Crusaders will play a quarterfinal at No. 3 St. Vincent de Paul on Friday evening.

And rounding out a busy couple of days for the H-DNL teams, the No. 9 McKinleyville girls lost their Division-3 softball opener at No. 8 Sonoma Valley by a score of 15-5 to end their season.

The No. 4 Fortuna girls had an opening-round bye and will host Piedmont in a Division-4 quarterfinal on Saturday at 1 p.m.

The No. 3 McKinleyville boys also had an opening-round bye in Division-4 baseball and will play No. 6 St. Helena on Saturday afternoon at noon.