Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Senior pitcher Evan Fraser in action for the Panthers on Saturday.

By Ray Hamill — The McKinleyville Panthers continued to roll on Saturday, as they opened the North Coast Section baseball playoffs with a shutout win over St. Helena at McKinleyville.

The Big 5 and Charles Lakin tournament champions beat St. Helena 10-0 in six innings to move within two wins of winning a first section pennant in 18 years and completing an historic hat trick of championships in the same season for the first time in school history.

The Panthers hit the ball well once again and led throughout before ending the game on the 10-run rule on a walk-off base hit by Tenoch Tapia that scored Tyson Bragg.

“It was a good all-around team performance,” head coach Mike Dobrec said. “It was a team win. Everybody hit. It makes it easy for me when we hit like that, and if we hit the ball like we have been we’re going to be hard to beat.”

Freshman Hunter Carper continued to play beyond his years with another big performance at the plate.

The first-year varsity standout led the team on offense and finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs.

Dobrec described the freshman’s season as “pretty amazing.”

But he wasn’t the only McKinleyville player to impress in a lineup that is hitting its stride at the plate at the perfect time and a team that has now won 15 straight games.

Remarkably, the Panthers have scored seven or more runs in 12 of those wins and have hit double digits in runs in eight of them.

“They’re just hitting the ball well,” the head coach added. “Our pitching and defense has been there. We’re just playing a complete game of baseball right now.

“St. Helena’s a good team. We just hit the ball well today.”

In addition to Carper’s big impact, Jackson Kelly was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, Bragg was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Bryce Sargent was 2-for-4.

Kolbey Stolpe and Evan Fraser each also had a hit to round out a 12-hit team performance.

Fraser also threw all six innings for the win on the mound as he continues to shine in his final high school season before heading to play for Hawaii Hilo in the fall.

Fraser gave up just two hits and four walks and struck out two, while allowing his consistent defense to continue to make plays behind him.

“Even threw good,” Dobrec said. “It wasn’t his best performance, but he’s going to go out and compete. That’s what we expect from him.”

The No. 3 seeds in the Division-4 bracket will now advance to play at No. 2 Piedmont on Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. after the Highlanders won their quarterfinal against Hercules 5-0 on Saturday.

“We’re playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Dobrec said. “Hopefully we can keep it rolling.”

The Panthers are competing for a fourth all-time section championship, having also won NCS titles in 1991, 1995 and 2006.