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The Eureka pitching continued to impress on Wednesday, as the Loggers stretched their unbeaten start to the Big 5.
After sweeping a doubleheader against Fortuna over the weekend, the Eureka boys improved to 3-0 in conference play with a 5-1 win over Arcata at Belotti Field.
With the victory, they took over sole possession of the conference lead, moving one win ahead of Del Norte (2-0), which had a midweek bye in conference play.
Following two strong pitching performances by Ty Crawford and Brayden Bermers on Saturday, sophomore Kyle Giacone threw a one-hitter against the Tigers.
Through their first three conference games, the Loggers have allowed just three hits.
The frightening thing for the rest of the Big 5 is that the Eureka pitching can be better, according to head coach Tommy Gale.
“It was another case of not having our best stuff on the mound,” Gale said. “Kyle was woking and fighting through it, and I think it was an awesome lesson to be able to fight through that from a mental standpoint.”
The loss was also another learning opportunity for a young Arcata lineup, as the Tigers dropped to 0-3 in the Big 5.
“I did see improvement,” Arcata head coach Troy Ghisetti said. “Defensively I thought that we held our own, but offensively we’re struggling a little bit.
“Eleven strikeouts in 22 at-bats is not good enough at the varsity level. We’ve got to find a way to get better, but we stayed in the game mentally and physically and gave ourselves an opportunity to put up some runs.”
Giacone pitched a complete game and gave up just the one hit and four walks and struck out 11.
“Giacone just had a little too much for us,” Ghisetti said. “But defensively we kept ourselves in the game. I was real happy about that.”
Senior team captain Garrett Levitt finished 2-for-2 at the plate for Eureka and scored a pair of runs, while junior Ryder Mitchell was 2-for-3 and the impressive Bermers continued to make an impact, finishing 2-for-4.
“We have a few guys that are hot,” said Gale, whose team has now won six straight games and improved to 11-4 overall. “It’s nice that those guys are stepping up.”
Gale, however, admitted that the team still has some stuff to clean up if the Loggers want to maintain their challenge for the Big 5 championship, especially with two huge games at McKinleyville on Saturday, weather permitting.
Gavin Anderson had the only hit of the game for the Tigers and finished 1-for-3.
Rylan Kees for the start on the mound and threw 4.1 solid innings, striking out five.
Anderson struck out three in 3.2 innings.
With the loss, the Arcata boys dropped to 0-3 in the Big 5 and 5-10 overall.
The Tigers will have a bye in conference play this weekend, before hosting Fortuna next Wednesday.
