Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — It was a busy week for the Little 4 schools in both baseball and softball, and they are well represented in this week’s awards, along with a Cal Poly Humboldt junior who enjoyed a record-breaking week.

The St. Bernard’s Crusaders got their conference schedule off to an impressive start in baseball with a pair of wins over the Ferndale Wildcats.

Head coach Matt Tomlin and his players traveled to Ferndale on Tuesday and came away with an 8-5 win, before hosting the Wildcats two days later and winning again, 11-9.

While this team is still a work in progress — most notably on defense — the two victories over a team that is expected to be their biggest challengers for the conference championship this spring leave the Crusaders in a tie for the early Little 4 lead with the South Fork Cubs, who also won their first two conference games this week.

Tomlin has a largely young team this year, with a dangerous lineup one through nine, but the roster is led by three talented seniors who are setting the tone for their younger teammates and all three are playing at a very high level right now.

And all of that makes the Crusaders our choice for Humboldt Sports Team of the Week.

The Little 4 softball teams also began conference play this week.

The Hoopa girls hosted defending conference champs South Fork in a doubleheader on Tuesday and split, taking game one 6-3 and losing game two 7-0.

One Hoopa senior in particular has been playing a key role for her team at the plate and that continued this week.

Rikki Lipscomb leads the Warriors in several key categories, including average and on-base percentage..

In the two games against South Fork, Lipscomb finished 5-for-7 to help secure the opening-day split.

And that makes Lipscomb one of our athletes of the week.

Joining her is a former Eureka Logger who is enjoying a memorable season for the Cal Poly Humboldt track and field team.

Junior Joseph Gonzalez continued to impress for the jacks this past week, setting a new school record on his way to victory in the shot put at the Cal Poly Humboldt Invitational.

Cal Poly Humboldt Athletics

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK

Joseph Gonzalez

Cal Poly Humboldt Track and Field, Junior

Gonzalez delivered one of Humboldt’s top performances of the day at last weekend’s meet, winning the shot put with a throw of 17.01 meters (55’ 9.75”), which is a new program record.

The Jacks junior also placed second in the discus with a throw of  47.18m (154’ 9”), coming close to the eighth-best throw in program history. 

Hi performance in the shot put was also an NCAA Division-II qualifying provisional mark.

For more on his big week, see Florvilus, Gonzalez enjoy big days at Cal Poly Humboldt Invitational …

Rikki Lipscomb

Hoopa Softball, Senior

Lipscomb has one of the most consistent bats in the Little 4 this spring and that continued to be the case on Tuesday.

The Hoopa senior’s five hits in the doubleheader split lifted her season average to .421, and she also has a team-leading on-base percentage of .476.

Lipscomb and the Warriors will try to continue their good start to conference play when they travel to Ferndale for a doubleheader on Tuesday.

For more on her big week, see LITTLE 4 SOFTBALL — Cats sweep St. Bernard’s; Cubs, Warriors split …

TEAM OF THE WEEK

St. Bernard’s Baseball

With seniors Michael Manzi, Luke Brunton and Tyler Hinrichs leading the way on a young team, St. Bernard’s is the only remaining undefeated baseball team in the H-DNL.

Al three seniors played key roles in this week’s two-game sweep of the Ferndale Wildcats, as the Crusaders took control of the race for this year’s conference championship.

The Crusaders are still making way too many errors on defense — they committed 11 over the two games this week — but they’re compensating for that with plenty of offense and have scored at least eight runs in seven of their 10 games so far.

Tomlin admits they will need to improve their defensive play if they want to reach their potential, but for now the Crusaders are finding ways to take care of business, and that makes them our team of the week.

For more on St. Bernard’s big week, see Crusaders hold on late to edge the Wildcats in Little 4 action …