Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

The Del Norte bats rediscovered their touch at an opportune time.

After posting back-to-back shutout losses in their final two regular season games, the Warriors opened the postseason with an 11-3 win over Ferndale in the opening game of this year’s Charles Lakin Tournament at the Arcata Ball Park.

And no one played a bigger role in the win than junior Landon Williams.

The Del Norte team captain has established himself as one of the most dangerous all-around players in the H-DNL and that continued to be the case on Tuesday.

Williams pitched a complete game for the win on the mound, striking out nine, and he also had a huge day at the plate, finishing 4-for-5.

The victory sets up a semifinal showdown against Big 5 champs McKinleyville on Thursday.

Much as they have all season long, errors continued to hurt the Wildcats, who suffered their first non-conference loss of the spring.

With the loss, which ended a four-game winning streak, Ferndale dropped to 16-5 on the season.

No stats from Tuesday’s game were immediately available for the Wildcats, who will now turn their attention to next week’s North Coast Section playoffs, with the brackets and seeds set to be announced on Sunday.

The Warriors, meanwhile, will continue tournament play on Thursday as they look to qualify for a first-ever Lakin tournament championship game.

In addition to Williams’ big game on Tuesday, Marco Gonzalez and Jaxon Sharp each finished 3-for-5, with Gonzalez also scoring a run, while Ben Shrewsberry (2-for-3) and Charlie Martelli (2-for-4) each also had multiple hits in the win.

Jerimiah Griffin provided the offensive highlight of the game hitting a bases-clearing triple in the sixth.

With the win, the Warriors improved to 13-12.

Thursday’s semifinal showdown against the Panthers is set for 4 p.m.