File photo – The St. Bernard’s girls

The Del Norte Warriors and St. Bernard’s Crusaders both lost by just one run in their North Coast Section softball championship games on Friday.

The Warriors, who lost an NCS final for the second straight year, fell 2-1 to top seed St. Helena in the Division-4 championship on Friday night.

The Crusaders lost a high-scoring showdown in the Division-5 decider, falling 10-9 to Berean Christian in Concord on Friday afternoon.

The losses could end the season for both teams, although each could receive an at-large berth for next week’s state NorCal playoffs.

The brackets and seeds for the NorCals will be released on Sunday.

The two losses also close out what was an impressive run in the NCS playoffs for the H-DNL teams.

Last weekend, the South Fork girls won the Division-6 NCS championship on the road, beating California School for the Deaf 12-1 in Fremont.

The Ferndale Wildcats followed that with a dominating 17-5 win over Point Arena in Wednesday’s NCS Division-6 baseball championship game at Ferndale High.

The South Fork girls and the Ferndale boys are both guaranteed to advance to next week’s NorCal tournaments.

The Del Norte girls pushed the Saints all way after a thrilling semifinal win over Salesian in their semifinal in Crescent City on Wednesday evening.

Junior Tsinte Steinruck hit a two-run walk-off home run to lift the team to a 4-3 come-from-behind win against Salesian.

The Warriors trailed early in Friday’s final after the home team opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning.

The Del Norte girls, however, would tie the game in the top of the third, before the Saints added what would be the winning run in the bottom of the fourth.

The Warriors, who finished with four hits, were unable to add to their tally after that.

The Crusaders, meanwhile, also pushed their opponents all the way in their championship showdown.

They took a one-run lead in the top of the first, but the Eagles would answer with five runs in the bottom of the second to take control.

With their championship hopes on the line, the Crusaders responded with three more runs in the top of the third and it was back and forth for much of the afternoon.

The Eagles carried a one-run lead into the seventh and final inning, but the Crusaders battled back to score two runs and led 9-8 going into the bottom half of the inning.

The Berean Christian girls, however, had the final say and scored two runs for the walk-off victory.

We’ll have much more on both games on Saturday.

In 2022, the Eureka Loggers advanced to the NorCal playoffs with an at-large berth after losing their NCS final, as did the Del Norte girls last season.

The Del Norte girls celebrate there recent Charles Lakin tournament championship.

File photo – The SB girls celebrate their NCS semifinal win over Lower Lake on Tuesday.