The Hoopa Warriors continued their late-season surge in Little 4 softball with a doubleheader sweep over Ferndale in warm conditions in Hoopa on Thursday afternoon.

The home team took a hard-fought game one 10-5 and followed that with a more comfortable 10-0 win in five innings in game two.

The two victories sees the Warriors improve to 5-5 in the Little 4 and leapfrog St. Bernard’s into second place in the conference standings.

The Hoopa girls started the season with nine straight losses, but they have turned things around and have now won six of their last eight games to all but guarantee themselves a place in this year’s Charles Lakin tournament.

“It’s awesome to see my girls come together at the right time, pushing them further up the ladder in league,” Hoopa head coach Jordee Colegrove-Avery said. “They’re a tough group of young ladies who aren’t backing down, and I couldn’t be more proud.”

They had to battle in game one on Thursday.

The Warriors led by three runs after four innings, but the visitors scored four runs in the top of the fifth to take a 5-4 lead.

However, the Warriors responded with six unanswered runs to close out the game and take the win.

Game two was a little more lopsided, with the home team opening up a 6-0 lead after two innings and ending the game early with four more runs in the fourth and fifth innings.

“In the first game we battled to stay in it,” Ferndale head coach Jeremy Griffith said. “In the fifth inning we got some timely hits, but defensively we just didn’t quite do enough to finish it out.”

Angela Hern and Roxy Colegrove led the way at the plate for Hoopa in game one.

Hern finished 2-for-5 with an RBI and Colegrove was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and also scored two runs.

“My girls didn’t get their heads down,” Colegrove-Avery said, referring to the late deficit. “They came back, got the score back to 5-5 and the next inning pulled ahead with five more runs.”

Monteya Colegrove got the win in the circle, giving up just three hits and two walks and striking out 10.

She struck out the first two batters in the top of the seventh, before inducing a fly ball to McKinnon at first base to close out the game.

Rikki Lipscomb, Monteya Colegrove, Millennia McKindley and Tylie McKinnon each also had a base hit in the win.

Kalia Mitchell also scored three runs for Hoopa.

The Gossi sisters led the way at the plate for the Wildcats in game one.

Sophomore Olivia finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and scored two runs and she also pitched a complete game in the circle, striking out nine.

Junior Madison finished 1-for-3 with a two-run home run to help key the fifth-inning rally.

It was Madison’s third home run in three games.

Monteya Colegrove got her second win of the day in the circle in game two, giving up just one hit and striking out 10 in a complete-game performance.

McKinnon led the Warriors at the plate with a pair of doubles and four RBIs, including a walk-off blast in the bottom of the fifth, while Kiera Ashley and McKindley each also had two hits in the win, including a double and two RBIs by the latter.

Hern rounded out a seven-hit team performance, while Mitchell once again scored three runs and had three stolen bases.

“Kalia had some awesome base running today, aggressive the whole time,” Colegrove-Avery said.

Danica Dowd had Ferndale’s only hit of the game.

Hoopa is now 7-14 overall, while Ferndale is 3-7 in the Little 4 and 10-11 overall.