Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Ferndale players and coaches celebrate their NCS championship on Wednesday.
By Ray Hamill — The North Coast Section Division-6 baseball championship will remain in Humboldt county for the third straight year, it’s just switching schools.
On Wednesday evening, a determined Wildcats team achieved its biggest goal of the year and secured a first NCS crown in seven years with a dominating 17-5 win over Point Arena in five innings in front of a large crowd at Ferndale High.
More importantly, the victory completed some unfinished business for this group of players, many of whom were on hand last spring when the Cats lost to rival St. Bernard’s in the championship game as the Crusaders secured back-to-back section crowns.
The NCS title, which is the fifth in school history and the third for longtime head coach Justin Andersen, follows the Little 4 championship they won earlier this month.
But this one was what these Cats really wanted all along.
“It’s big,” Andersen said of the achievement. “We wanted to win league, but ultimately our goal this year was to get back to this game and right the wrong from last year.”
They did that and more, overwhelming a Point Arena team that knocked off South Fork in Saturday’s semifinal but looked completely overmatched on a second trip to Humboldt County in five days.
The visitors started the stronger of the two teams and led 1-0 after the top of the first and 3-1 heading into the bottom of the second.
But no one in the home dugout was pushing the panic button at that stage and the Wildcats would comprehensively take control of the game with six runs in the bottom of the second and seven more in the third.
As they have been doing for much of the season, the Wildcats won with some strong pitching, some quality defense and a lineup that never quits.
Eight of the nine Ferndale starters hit successfully and the ninth reached base three of the four times he went to bat and scored three runs.
“One to nine all contributed,” Andersen said. “And that’s kind of our story.”
Sophomore Tanner Pidgeon set the tone in his first at-bat, blasting an RBI double that almost went for a triple to tie the game in the bottom of the first.
The Pirates, however, added two more runs in the top of the second and looked like they might be the team to pull away early, before an inning-ending double play by the Ferndale defense left two Point Arena base runners stranded.
“That was exactly what we needed right then and there,” the Ferndale head coach added.
The momentum shifted to the home team in the bottom half of the inning as the Cats added six runs on two-RBI hits from Parker Prior, Levi Dixon and Austin Michel.
After holding the visitors and No. 3 seeds in the bracket scoreless in the top half of the third, the No. 1 seeded Wildcats ended the game as a contest in the bottom half of the inning.
A bases-clearing double by Jarrett Smith highlighted the seven-run inning and after that it was just a matter of time before the Wildcats would lift the pennant.
“I was very pleased we came out aggressive at the plate,” Andersen said of his players, who have displayed a maturity with their performances this season. “It’s one through nine really. They’re just competing.”
The pitching and defense also has paved the way for this team’s success this spring.
Levi Dixon got the start on the mound and threw four strong innings for the victory, allowing just two hits and three walks and striking out four.
Michel pitched the final inning to secure the win.
Prior, Pidgeon, Dixon, Michel, Smith, Jonah Anderson, Prescott Langer and Tristen Titus each had a hit in the win, while Trent Titus added a walk, was hit by a pitch twice and would score all three times he reached base.
Point Arena senior Derek Billy got the start on the hill just four days after a big performance against South Fork and caused the Cats some problems early on before the home lineup settled into the game.
“That pitcher was pretty good,” Andersen said. “He had some good velocity and good movement on his pitches.”
The NCS championship is the second this year for most of these players, who also played on the Ferndale football team that would go on to win a first-ever state title for the school.
And it didn’t take them long after the NCS crown in football to begin thinking of baseball and what they wanted to achieve in the spring.
“A lot of these guys were texting me right after they won a football title and saying ‘we’ve got another one to go,’” said Andersen, who added “100 percent, it has been our motivation all year.”
That determination and motivation has been evident from day one in the way the players have approached each game and this is a group that has lost just twice all year, including a disappointing error-filled performance against Eureka in the Charles Lakin tournament semifinals.
That was a defeat that ended an eight-game winning streak and one that may have served as a wake-up call.
“That loss to Eureka might have been the best thing for us,” said Andersen, who also led the Cats to NCS championships in 2016 and 2017. “It reminded us we need to play united and we need to play for seven innings.”
The NCS championship also guarantees a first-ever trip to the recently initiated NorCal state playoffs, which get under way next week.
The Wildcats will find out their bracket and seed on Sunday and Andersen is hoping for at least one more home game, especially in light of the support the players have received this spring.
“Once again we had a great crowd,” he said. “We’ve had good community support all year and in a lot of ways these players are playing for that community.”
No doubt the Ferndale community is proud of what the Cats have achieved.
And they’re not done yet.
