Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Ben Lukens reaches home plate after hitting a solo home run in the third inning of Tuesday’s game.

By Ray Hamill — The Arcata Tigers will play for a fourth North Coast Section championships in eight seasons this weekend.

On Tuesday evening, the No. 2 seeded Tigers won their Division-5 semifinal against No. 3 St. Bernard’s at Arcata High, 5-2.

The win sets up a championship game against No. 5 Kennedy after the Titans won their semifinal at No. 1 Pinole Valley, 5-4.

The championship game will be played on Friday evening at 5 p.m. at Arcata High.

Junior Tanner Kees pitched six strong innings for the win on the mound on Tuesday and struck out 11, while senior Ben Lukens provided the offensive highlight of the night with a solo home run in the bottom of the third inning.

“I thought Tanner Kees did a really nice job on the mound,” Arcata head coach Troy Ghisetti said. “He’s stepped up in a big way.”

St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin echoed the sentiment.

“Congrats to Arcata on the victory,” Tomlin said. “Coach Ghisetti and his staff coached a great game and Arcata executed when they needed to.

“Tanner Kees was outstanding on the mound and gave his team a chance to advance to the championship game. Good luck to the Tigers, I hope they win a section title for the H-DNL.”

Michael Manzi got the start on the mound for the Crusaders, giving up four runs on two hits and four walks in two innings before Garrett Shanahan took over.

The Tigers steadily built momentum with runs in each of the first four innings and they led 5-1 going into the fifth.

Shanahan, however, did a good job containing the Arcata bats when he took over on the hill and he kept his team in the game.

And that made for an exciting finish.

The Crusaders loaded the bases in the top of the seventh with Manzi up at the plate, but Arcata senior Anthony Ebert, who just recently returned from injury, took over on the hill and got a huge strikeout to seal the win.

“Having Ebert be able to come back late in the year is big for us,” Ghisetti said. “St. Bernard’s is there to compete, Tomlin gets his kids to compete 24-7. It was a tough W for us, because they continued to put pressure on us..”

The Crusaders out-hit their hosts 5-4 but stranded 13 runners, while the Tigers made the plays they had to.

“I thought defensively we played very well. We limited their hits,” Ghisetti said. “(The Crusaders) were competitive and I thought our pitchers gave up too many walks. But we stepped up late when they had the bases loaded in the seventh.”

Leaving so many runners stranded ultimately cost the Crusaders a chance to advance to the championship game.

“We just didn’t play well enough to win a big game today,” Tomlin said. “Too many runners left on base, three errors and six walks.

“But we had a great season, brought the league championship back home, and I am super proud of these kids.”

In addition to Lukens’ big home run, Arcata’s Finn Warner also impressed at the plate and finished 1-for-1 with a double, while Charlie Mager and Joe Wellik each was 1-for-3.

Lukens also pitched two-thirds of an inning in the seventh before Ebert’s big out.

For St. Bernard’s, Manzi finished 1-for-3 with an RBI, while senior Tyler Maples 1-for-3 with a walk in his final high school game.

Quentin Ikeya also made some noise at the plate for the visitors and as 2-for-3 with a double, while Shanahan was 1-for-4 with an RBI.

Maples and fellow seniors Adam Wagner and TC Rinker will be missed after all three played big roles on the way to the Little 4 championship this spring.

“We will miss our three seniors,” Tomlin said. “Thank you for a great career Tyler Maples, TC Rinker and Adam Wagner.”

The SB coach also praised the play of Shanahan, who allowed just one run on one hit and two walks in four innings and finished with three strikeouts.

“He gave us a chance to rally with four outstanding innings of work,” Tomlin said.

Ghisetti and his players will now turn their attention towards Kennedy and Friday’s big showdown.

“We’ve got to go out and compete,” the Arcata coach said. “And we’ve got to do a better job hitting.”

The longtime head coach has led the Tigers to NCS championships in three of the past seven postseasons, taking home a winning pennant in 2016, 2019 and 2023 (there were no section playoffs in 2020 or 2021).

The Crusaders closed out the season 19-9.

Submitted photo – The three St. Bernard’s seniors, Tyler Maples, TC Rinker and Adam Wagner.