Cal Poly Humboldt Athletics

The season doesn’t end just yet, but the Jacks will have to do it the hard way if they want to win this year’s CCAA softball tournament.

The No. 3 seeded Cal Poly Humboldt women opened tournament play on Thursday, falling 7-6 to No. 2 Cal State Easy Bay in Hayward.

The Humboldt women will continue play in the double-elimination tournament on Friday, taking on Cal State Dominguez Hills at 12:30 p.m.

Thursday’s game was back and forth and went right down to the wire, with the tournament hosts securing a walk-off victory with two runs in the bottom of the seventh.

The Pioneers opened the scoring with three runs in the bottom of the third, but a resilient Jacks team would respond with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth.

Both teams were just getting warmed up, and the East Bay women would add to their tally in the bottom half of the fourth, scoring two more runs to stretch the advantage back to three.

The Lumberjacks, however, dug deep and answered the call late, scoring four runs with a sixth-inning rally to take their first lead of the day, and they carried a slender one-run advantage into the seventh.

But the tournament hosts had the final say, adding two more runs in the bottom of the seventh, including a solo home run by Jasmyn Morales, to secure the walk-off victory.

Bella Garcia (2-for-4 with an RBI) led the Jacks at the plate, while teammates Alyssa Ramirez and Matea Muraoka each had a double.

Freshman Lily Fournier pitched a complete game and took the loss in the circle, allowing eight hits and one walk and striking out seven.