The Eureka Loggers will close out their pre-conference schedule in softball with a game at home against Big 5 rival McKinleyville on Tuesday, as they look to make some noise in this year’s conference.

The Eureka girls continued their preparation for conference over the weekend, traveling to Ukiah to play a doubleheader against the Wildcats.

The Loggers, however, dropped both games, falling 10-5 in the opener and 16-6 in game two.

A late rally in game one would close what had been a nine-run deficit to just four, but that was as close as the visitors would come.

Jaycee Childress led the Loggers at the plate in the opener, finishing 2-for-3 with a run, but five errors on defense did not help matters.

Pitcher Makenzie Wolff took the loss in the circle.

The junior pitcher threw six innings, allowing three earned runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out five.

Violla Kingsang and Tiffany Harris each doubled in the loss, with Kingsang also driving in three runs, while Kylee Secor (1-for-3 with a walk), Megan Secor (1-for-4) Koko Saulque (1of-4 with a run and an RBI) and Ella Moxon (1-for-4 with two runs) each also had a base hit and Bailey Brown walked twice.

Game two got away from the Loggers early when the Wildcats scored seven runs in the bottom of the second inning to open up a 9-2 lead.

Macy Secor had the hot bat for the visitors in that game and finished 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs, while Brown also impressed at plate and went 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI, two runs and a stolen base.

Kingsang (1-for-3 with a run and a stolen base), Lola Distefino (1-for-2 with two RBIs) and Moxon (1-for-2 with a run) each also had a base hit in the loss.

Kylee Secor took the loss in the circle.

Eureka is now 3-5 on the season.

Tuesday’s game against the Panthers, which has been moved up from Wednesday because of the weather, begins at 4 p.m.

The Loggers will then open conference play with a challenging home doubleheader against Fortuna on Saturday.