Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — St. Bernard’s bid farewell to a trio of very influential seniors on Wednesday, but the future appears bright for the Little 4 champs.

The top seeds in the North Coast Section Division-4 bracket welcomed No. 5 Newark Memorial to Crusader Field for a section semifinal and fell 8-0 to end another successful season.

The game was the final one in a St. Bernard’s uniform for seniors Michael Manzi, Tyler Hinrichs and Luke Brunton, each of whom has played a key role for the team over the past four years.

But with 14 freshmen and sophomores on the roster, all of whom gained valuable experience this spring, the Crusaders will go into 2027 as one of the best teams in the H-DNL.

On Wednesday, however, things didn’t go their way against a Newark Memorial team that also ended Del Norte’s season in the opening round of the playoffs last week.

The shutout was just the second of the year for the Crusaders, who closed out with a record of 22-5.

Senior pitcher Connor Murphy dominated on the mound for the Cougars, much as he has been doing all season long.

Murphy threw a complete game for the win, his 11th of the season, and gave up just three hits and two walks while striking out 13.

The senior team ace, who also leads the Cougars in batting average, has posted the win on the hill in 11 of his team’s 17 victories and has lost just three times with a very impressive ERA of 0.71.

He also finished 2-for-4 at the plate with a pair of doubles in Wednesday’s win.

For St. Bernard’s, sophomore Henry Hinrichs continued to impress at the plate, and if his strong finish to the year is any indication he could be in for a huge season in 2027.

The younger of the two Hinrichs brothers finished 1-for-2 with a walk and reached base all three times he went to bat, while also stealing three bases.

Junior Mason Noel also impressed on both sides of the ball, finishing 1-for-2 and making a spectacular throw from the outfield fence to throw out a runner trying to get a double.

Freshman Mason Long also was 1-for-1.

Overall, however, it was far from the Crusaders’ best performance of the season.

“It was a rough night,” St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin said. “We didn’t play well in any aspect for the game.”

Sophomore Saehwan Kwon got the start on the mound and threw 2.1 innings for the loss, giving up two earned runs while walking one, hitting two batters and striking out one.

The visitors scored a run in each of the first two innings to take an early lead and they would add four more in the top of the fourth to put some distance between the two teams.

Freshman Tyler Bailey and Tyler Hinrichs both pitched in relief for the home team.

Bailey, who has enjoyed an impressive debut campaign at the high school level, threw 1.2 innings while giving up three hits and three walks and striking out one.

Tyler Hinrichs, who will play football at Simpson University next year, threw the final three innings and gave up two earned runs on one hit and two walks while striking out seven.

Replacing the three seniors won’t be easy for Tomlin and his staff, but a large pool of underclass youngsters will certainly help.

“We will miss our three amazing seniors,” said Tomlin, who added all of them “had great high school careers.”

The coach also praised what the team achieved this season, including a perfect 12-0 run through conference play.

“Overall it was an amazing season and a great journey,” he said.