File photo – Cabella Carper

The McKinleyville Panthers continued to set the pace in a competitive Big 5 after withstanding a late Del Norte rally in softball in Crescent City on Friday afternoon.

The Big 5 leaders led 7-1 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, but the host Warriors would make for an interesting finish after scoring five runs in their half of the inning, before eventually falling by the narrowest of margins, 7-6.

With the win, the Panthers improved to 3-1 in conference play and hold a slender lead in the standings over the Fortuna girls, who won at Arcata on Friday to go to 4-2, and Eureka, which had a bye on Friday and is 3-2 heading into a weekend doubleheader against Del Norte.

McKinleyville will close out the first half of conference play in a doubleheader at Arcata on Saturday.

On Friday, they took care of business.

Barely.

The Panthers out-hit the Warriors 14-9 for the game, with the top six players in the lineup all finishing with multiple hits.

They scored three runs in the top of the first inning and led 4-0 after two.

The home team would get on the board with a single run in the bottom of the third, but the visitors would add two more runs in the fourth and stretched the advantage to six with a single run in the seventh.

But the three-time defending conference champion Warriors were just getting warmed up and would cut into the deficit with five late runs to pull within one before running out of time.

Cabella Carper finished 2-for-4 with a double, a walk and two runs for McKinleyville, which improved to 8-4 on the season, while teammate Liana Stumpf finished 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and two runs, and Leili Guerrero was 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run.

Mckennah Sargent (2-for-3 with an RBI), Avery Bartoo (2-for-4 with an RBI) and Josie Provolt-Dowd (2-for-4 with an RBI and a run) each also had multiple hits in the win.

Sargent got the win in the circle, giving up five earned runs on nine hits and two walks and striking out five.

Ashton Rodriguez and Bailey White each also had a hit for the Panthers, while Addison White added an RBI and scored a run.

Sophomore Addi Whitford had a good day for the home team, which dropped a third straight Big 5 game and is now 2-3 in conference play and 9-6 overall.

Whitford was one of two players to finish with multiple hits in the loss, along with Josephine Antonetti, and she also pitched a complete game.

Whitford finished 2-for-4 with a double, three RBIs and scored a run, while giving up five earned runs on 14 hits and one walk and striking out one.

Both teams committed three errors on defense.

Antonetti finished 2-for-3 and scored two runs, while teammate Bella Arriola added a double and had two RBIs.

Bliss Blackburn (1-for-3 with a run), Deja Travis (1-for-4), Taylor Horner (1-for-4) and Tatum Diaz (1-for-1 with a run) each also had a base hit for Del Norte.

It will be a quick turnaround for both teams, who are each set to play three games in 24 hours.

Both of Saturday’s doubleheaders get under way at 11 a.m.