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The Wildcats kept their Little 4 championship hopes alive with an important win against South Fork on Thursday.

The Cats welcomed the Cubs to Ferndale and prevailed 16-6 in five innings for their third straight conference win.

They can improve to 4-2 in the L4 with a victory at Hoopa in a make-up game on Friday afternoon, before turning their attention to a make-or-break week and two games against unbeaten conference leaders St. Bernard’s next week.

Scoring runs has not been a problem for the Cats, who are averaging more than 12 runs through their opening 13 games, including 32 in two games against South Fork this week.

But if they want to get the better of St. Bernard’s next week and get their title hopes back on track, they will need to clean up some things, according to head coach Justin Andersen.

“We’ve been putting up runs, but we’re still giving up to many runs,” Andersen admitted. “We’re seeing games better and making the right plays, it’s just a matter of executing when we see the plays develop.”

The Cats took a quick 5-0 lead in the first inning of Thursday’s game, but allowed the Cubs come right back with five runs of their own in the top of the second.

They still, however, did enough to win the game comfortably and their only two losses of the season thus far have come against an unbeaten St. Bernard’s team.

“One through nine, we’re still putting the ball in play and still hitting the ball hard,” Andersen said. “They may not be pretty, but we’re still piling up the wins.”

On Thursday, sophomore Cash Mobley continued his impressive week.

Two days after hitting a pair of home runs at South Fork, the young standout finished 2-for-3 with a double.

The always dangerous Prescott Langer also impressed in the win, finishing 2-for-2 with a double, while Colton Renner and Cade Renner each finished 1-for-2.

Westin Ayala (1-for-3), Tristen Titus (1-for-3) and Tanner Pidgeon (1-for-5) rounded out a balanced team performance at the plate.

Ayala pitched all five innings for the win on the mound, giving up five hits and walking four, while striking out four.

“He threw good,” Andersen said. “He settled in and threw well and made some good in-game adjustments.”

No stats from Thursday’s game were immediately available for the South Fork boys, who dropped to 2-4 in the Little 4 and 6-11 overall.