The defending Big 5 baseball champs got their 2025 conference campaign off to a successful start on Wednesday.

After watching all of their Big 5 rivals play over the weekend while they had a bye, the McKinleyville boys finally began conference play at Fortuna and cruised to an 11-1 win in five innings.

Eight different Panthers hit successfully in the win and gave sophomore pitcher Rhythm Green plenty of support on the way to the victory.

And the McKinleyville defense was just as effective.

“I thought we played well,” McKinleyville head coach Mike Dobrec said afterwards. “Our defense didn’t make any errors. It was just a good team win. A good team effort.”

The Panthers carried a two-run lead into the top of the third and blew the game open with five runs in the inning.

They would add a pair of insurance runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings to end the game early.

Jackson Kelly led the McKinleyville boys at the plate and finished 3-for-3, while sophomore Hunter Carper and freshman Jake Brunner each also had multiple hits.

The always-dangerous Carper finished 2-for-4 with an RBI, while Brunner continued to impress in his first season at the varsity level and finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

The freshman standout had a big two-RBI hit to help key the big third inning.

“For a freshman, he keeps coming through for us,” Dobrec said of the young standout. “As a team we just hit the ball well.”

Green threw all five innings for the win and grew into the game after allowing the first two Fortuna batters reach base, one of them on a double

“He settled in and threw strikes and threw well,” Dobrec said.

Green gave up just two hits and struck out six.

McKinleyville’s Blake Santos also had a good game and finished 1-for-1 with an RBI, while teammate Joe Tanno finished 1-for-2 with an RBI and Kolbey Stolpe was 1-for-3 with an RBI.

Green and Pat Wilson each also had a hit to round out a 12-hit team performance.

It was a disappointing afternoon for the Huskies but there were some bright spots, most notably the continued strong play from senior Mariqus Ludd.

Ludd “battled hard on the mound,” according to head coach Andy Petersen, and also had a base hit.

Blayne Barrote also impressed for the home team, making several running catches and driving in the team’s only run in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Freshman Juan Munoz-Guerrero also made some big plays for the Huskies after just recently being called up from the JV squad, giving his team a lift with a good afternoon behind the plate while also scoring their only run of the day after some heads up base running.

Next up, the Panthers (10-2 overall) will travel to Eureka for a huge doubleheader on Saturday at Belotti Field.

The weekend games will have a later start time because of a scheduled College of the Redwoods game at the same field and the two high school games will begin at 4:30 and 7 p.m.

The Huskies, who dropped to 0-3 in the Big 5 and 3-9 overall, will try to get back on track when they host Del Norte in a doubleheader on Saturday, with first pitch set for 11 a.m.