Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – St. Bernard’s senior Michael Manzi delivers a pitch during Thursday’s game against Ferndale.

By Ray Hamill — The Crusaders took a big step towards retaining their Little 4 title with a second win over Ferndale in three days on Thursday afternoon.

While there’s a long ways still to go in the race for this year’s championship — a race in which Hoopa and South Fork also expect to play a role — two wins over a team that is expected to be their biggest challengers puts the St. Bernard’s boys in the driver’s seat.

On Tuesday, they traveled to Ferndale and won 8-5, and they followed that with a hard-fought 11-9 win at Crusader Field on Thursday.

Also in the Little 4 on Thursday, a game between Hoopa and South Fork in Miranda had to be postponed because of the field conditions and has been rescheduled for Friday afternoon at 4.

The Crusaders had to battle hard for their win, and the visitors made things interesting after digging themselves a big hole early in the game.

The home team scored seven runs in the bottom of the third, including a two-run home run by in-form senior Luke Brunton, to open up an 11-1 lead.

At that stage, the Crusaders appeared to be cruising and the only question was whether they would 10-run their biggest rivals.

But the Wildcats had other ideas.

If this year’s Ferndale team has an identity, it just might be that they’re never out of games.

They recently overcame a late 0-7 deficit to beat the host school in the championship game of the Maxwell tournament, and they almost pulled off another thrilling comeback, scoring eight unanswered runs down the stretch before falling just short.

“I’m happy again they showed plenty of fight, and they still have the mentality they’re never out of the game,” Ferndale head coach Justin Andersen said of his players. “That’s something we can build on, but we still made mistakes that you can’t make against a good team.”

A Crusaders team that features a lot of young players this year also made mistakes in what was another less-than-perfect game by both schools.

But this year’s Crusaders look like a very good offensive team, and they did enough early in the game to pull out the victory and leave themselves alone atop the Little 4 standings.

“I am happy to pick up two wins over a good Ferndale team,” said St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin, whose team committed four errors in the win and 11 in the two games against the Cats this week. “But we have to get to work in practice and improve our defense if we want to reach our full potential.”

Despite the questionable defense and allowing the Cats to battle back, there were several bright spots for the home team.

The three SB seniors — Michael Manzi, Luke Brunton and Tyler Hinrichs — all impressed in the win as they continue to play a pivotal role for their team this year.

Manzi could very well be the best player in the H-DNL right now and has been playing well in all aspects of the game.

He got the start on the mound on Thursday and pitched well against a dangerous Ferndale lineup, allowing three earned runs on eight hits and a walk and striking out 10 in 5.2 innings.

Unfortunately, he was unable to finish the game.

“Michael Manzi had a good start on the mound,” said Tomlin, who added “Our defensive miscues caused (his) pitch count to max out.”

Manzi also finished 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI.

Brunton also had a big game as the team’s designated hitter.

One week after hitting his first-ever home run in a doubleheader sweep over Arcata, Brunton did it again, hitting a two-run blast to help key the big third inning.

The always-dangerous senior, who is the conference’s reigning MVP, finished 3-for-4 with the home run, a double and two RBIs.

Brunton, according to his coach, “has been red hot at the plate.”

Hinrichs also was instrumental in the win.

The SB team captain has been one of the toughest outs in the H-DNL this season and finished 1-for-2 with two walks, an RBI and two runs.

Hinrichs also got the save, taking the mound with two runners on in the sixth and pitching the final 1.1 innings.

He gave up two earned runs on two hits and two walks and struck out two.

Among the other highlights for the home team, junior Braylon Johnson hit his first home run of the season to break a 1-1 tie and give the Crusaders a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning.

After being held to just two runs for the opening four innings, the Wildcats grew into the game and began to settle down.

Senior Tanner Pidgeon led the Cats at the plate, finishing 3-for-5 with two doubles, an RBI and two runs, while junior Luke Dixon helped key the late rally with a home run in the sixth inning and finished 1-for-4.

Dixon almost also had a home run in the fifth with two runners on.

Prescott Langer also made his presence felt.

The Ferndale senior finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs, while Tristen Titus was 1-for-4 with a double and scored a run.

Cade Renner (1-for-3 with a run), Westin Ayala (1-for-4) and Cash Mobley (1-for-4 with a run) each also had a base hit in the loss.

Ayala got the start on the hill and threw three-plus innings, before Mobley took over.

Mobley did well, holding the SB bats scoreless over the final three innings to give his team a chance at a comeback, while allowing just two hits and two walks and striking out two.

The early hole, however, proved to be too much to overcome.

“The moral of the story is you can’t plan on having success when you fall behind in the count, especially if your team doesn’t back you up in the field,” Andersen said. “One we corrected that, we did alright.”

The home team’s performance was also far from perfect.

“After taking the 11-1 lead we didn’t play clean baseball,” Tomlin admitted. “We committed four errors and didn’t make some other simple plays to help our pitcher.

“We allowed Ferndale to work back into the game. I was happy with how we started tonight, but disappointed with how we closed.”

One of the SB freshman, Dakota Bestul, enjoyed a good game, as he continues to quickly establish himself at the varsity level, and he did so on both sides of the ball.

The young Bestul finished 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI and also made his presence felt behind the plate.

“Freshman catcher Dakota Bestul had a good game catching Manzi and he picked up two hits to round out a good game,” Tomlin said of the youngster.

Henry Hinrichs (1-for-4 with two RBIs) and Max Collins (1-for-3 with two runs) each also had a base hit in the win.

“Credit to them,” Andersen said of the Crusaders. “They did enough to win both games (this week).”

Next up, St. Bernard’s will host South Fork in a Little 4 doubleheader on Tuesday starting at 2 p.m., while Ferndale will host a single game against Hoopa on Tuesday at 4 p.m., before traveling to Hoopa two days later.

“We’ve just got to put our best foot forward and continue to get better and continue to improve,” Andersen added. “We have no other option.”