File photo – The five Ferndale seniors all had a big impact with the program.

A season that will live long in the memory of the Ferndale Wildcats came to an end on Thursday.

The Cats traveled to play Woodland Christian in the CIF state baseball NorCal Division-5 semifinals and fell 10-0 in five innings.

The home team scored runs in each of the first three innings on the way to opening up a nine-run lead, and after that there was no way back for the Wildcats, who were held to just two hits on the day.

The loss, however, won’t take from a season that saw the Cats re-establish themselves as one of the best teams in the H-DNL.

Earlier this month, they won the Little 4 conference for the first time in 19 years, and they followed that by winning their first North Coast Section championship since 2017.

All in all, it was a good spring for a team that went further into the postseason than ever before and was the last standing H-DNL team in baseball or softball.

And not surprisingly, a large crowd of Ferndale fans, who have supported the team in big numbers all year, traveled to Woodland for the historic showdown.

“I’m happy with the season and proud of what these guys accomplished this year for sure,” Ferndale head coach Justin Andersen said. “And I’m proud of how they carried themselves today, and I’m proud of the support we had from the community.”

Parker Prior and Tanner Pidgeon had the only hits of the day for the visitors.

Prescott Langer got the start on the mound and pitched three innings for the loss, before Prior took over and closed out the game.

“We played okay,” Andersen added.

The Ferndale bats hit a lot of fly balls that allowed the home team make easy plays for outs.

The loss comes just two days after the Cats won a NorCal state playoff game for the first time ever, overcoming an early deficit to beat Etna 8-6 in the quarterfinals.

File photo

That victory over the Lions avenged a first-round NorCal loss to the same school last year.

This year the Cats also beat nemesis St. Bernard’s four out of the five times they faced off, as they ended the Crusaders’ recent stranglehold on the Little 4.

And the Cats should be conference contenders once again next year, with the majority of their players all coming back, including a core group of three juniors and four sophomores.

Andersen, however, admits he will miss the five seniors that are about to graduate, an influential group that includes Levi Dixon, Trent Titus, Austin Michel, Wes Renner and Thomas Fergison.

“Obviously we’re going to miss the seniors, but I’m grateful for what they meant to the program,” the longtime head coach said.

Thursday’s loss was just the third of the season for the Wildcats, who closed out with a record of 19-3-1.

The loss officially ends the 2023/24 local high school sports year.