American Legion baseball appears to be a popular summer pastime in Southern Humboldt.

The Southern Humboldt 76ers had more players than expected show up for their 19U tryouts this summer and that means they will be adding a second 17U team, with additional tryouts scheduled for Saturday.

The younger team will play around 12 games over the next month.

“We’ll do what we can to get them some games,” program coach Justin Andersen said.  

The 19U team, meanwhile, began the season this past week with games against the Northern Humboldt Giants on Tuesday and the Humboldt Eagles on Thursday.

In both games, they saw a late lead disappear, falling 6-5 to the Giants in eight innings and 9-7 to the Eagles.

Broc Contreras and Kallen Barrote both had big games in Thursday’s loss.

Contreras got the start on the mound and pitched well, while also finishing 3-for-4 at the plate.

Barrote, who was named Fortuna’s Breakthrough Athlete of the Year at the school’s recent ESPYs awards night, also impressed at the plate and finished 2-for-4 with a double and five RBIs.

“Broc continued to stay hot and hit the ball well in both games, and Kallen had a big game (against the Eagles),” Andersen said. “And I expect that to continue for both of them.”

Parker Prior and Justin Freitas each also were 2-for-5 in Thursday’s loss, while Mariqus Ludd was 1-for-3 with a double.

Tanner Pidgeon, Austin Michel and Drew Franklin each also had a hit. With Franklin also pitching in relief and taking the loss on the mound.

“I thought we had some good at-bats and our defense played well,” Andersen said. “We just left too many runners on base and needed some timely hits but didn’t get hits at the right time.”

The 76ers stranded five runners in the first two innings.

The 76ers will be back in action when they play the Northern Humboldt Giants in a doubleheader at Newburg Park in Fortuna on Tuesday and will also play the Eagles again at Newburg Park on Wednesday.

No stats from Thursday’s game were immediately available for the Eagles.

Saturday’s tryouts for the 17Us will be held at Newburg Park and begin at 11:30 a.m.