File photo

The Humboldt Eagles suffered their second walk-off loss of the early summer to open the Petaluma tournament on Thursday, but would respond later in the day with a five-innings victory.

The local American Legion baseball club opened tournament play in an exciting showdown against Benicia that went right down to the wire.

The Eagles trailed by a a run going into the seventh, but would rally to tie things up and saw a potential go-ahead run called out at the plate.

“It was a close call,” Eagles manager Scott St. John said of the play. “We thought he was safe.”

Benicia would respond with a run in the bottom of the seventh, on yet another close call at the plate, to secure a 7-6 walk-off win.

Robert Williams led the Eagles at the plate and provided the offensive highlight of the day.

Williams finished 2-for-3 with a walk and hit a three-run home run, which his coaches described as a “bomb.”

Joe Tanno also impressed and finished 1-for-2 with a walk and an RBI double, while Jake Brunner was 1-for-1 with a run and Michael Manzi was 1-for-3 with an RBI double.

Former Hoopa Warrior Lyle McKinnon got the start on the mound and threw two innings for a no-decision, giving up four earned on two hits and four walks and striking out two.

Tanno pitched one scoreless inning in relief — allowing one hit and striking out three — with Tate Saso and Rhythm Green also pitching in relief.

Saso threw three strong innings and allowed one earned run on two hits with one strikeout.

“I really thought we played better than that team,” St. John said. “I feel like we gave them runs with walks and errors in the infield.”

Later in the day, the Eagles responded with a dominating 12-1 win over San Francisco Legion in five innings.

Former Ferndale Wildcat Parker Prior got the start and threw 4.1 strong innings for the win, allowing just one hit and three walks and striking out two.

Del Norte’s Anthony Cardenas pitched the final 0.2 innings to help see his team over the finish line and struck out one.

Garrett Levitt, Saso and Manzi all had multiple hits in the win.

Levitt, who will play at College of the Redwoods next year, finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs, while Saso was 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs and Manzi was 2-for-2 with two RBIs and two runs.

“We pretty much handled business in that game,” St. John said. 

The Eagles will continue tournament play against the Petaluma Leghorns on Friday evening, before playing two more tournament games on Saturday.