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Sunshine followed the Southern Humboldt all stars as they traveled this weekend to Eureka to compete in the District 26 9/10 All Star tournament. Eureka’s Redwood Empire hosted the tournament at their beautiful fields in Cutten, giving the Southern Humboldt players a great opportunity to play on a bigger stage. The boys from Redway were competing against the best players from Redwood Empire, Eel River (Fortuna), Arcata, Blue Lake/Fieldbrook, Klamath/Trinity, Del Norte, McKinleyville, and Eureka. The team would like to thank the family and friends that traveled to pack the bleachers and fill the air with loud cheers for all our players.

Saturday Southern Humboldt faced the scrappy Del Norte team. Dylan Knostman pitched well through 2 innings with four strikeouts but was pulled to save his pitchcount and keep him available to throw later in the tournament. K. Donahue, pitcher for Del Norte, baffled the Southern Humboldt batters, keeping them hitless through 3 innings. Lack of offense coupled with questionable calls by the umpiring crew frustrated the team and coaching staff. Raven Mood broke up the no hitter and shut out in the fourth with a hit followed by two stolen bases - including home - for Southern Humboldt’s only run of the game. The Del Norte team stormed to an 11-1 victory.

With the initial excitement of tournament play behind them, the So Hum team returned ready to face Eureka. Kevin Vandenack took the mound for Southern Humboldt and his veteran presence instilled confidence in the rest of the team. He pitched beautifully through four innings with 8 strikeouts and only giving up 2 runs. On Sunday our All Stars showed patience at the plate and forced a lot more base on balls than Saturday. The bats came alive with two outs in the second when Donovan Pogue ripped a double to get So Hum rolling. Kevin Vandenack followed with an RBI double and Dakota Cox came through with an RBI single. Vandenack was at his pitch limit at the end of the fourth and left the mound with a 4-2 lead. Eureka surged in the fifth, putting up 5 runs to take a 7-4 advantage. Southern Humboldt answered back in the bottom of the fifth. After two walks Ryder Pfau smoked an RBI single knocking in two runs, keeping his team in the game. Eureka led 7-6. Pfau was crucial, going 2-3 on Sunday and playing great in the field. Stellar defense sent the Eureka team down 1, 2, 3 in the sixth bringing Southern Humboldt their last chance. We stranded two base runners when the Eureka closer struck out the side to win the game 7-6.

The competition was tough for one of the smaller leagues in the district but the players represented us well and we should all be proud. Thank you to all the families of the players for their dedication to getting them to all the practices and games. Thanks to all the coaches and volunteers that made our league a success this year. And a HUGE thank you to league president Suzanne VanMeter for her tireless work and dedication in bringing countywide respect back to our league that everyone at the tournament could feel.

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The team that played this past weekend: front row from left, Adam Bernstein, Dakota Cox, Ryder Pfau, Kevin Vandenack, Donovan Pogue; back row from left, Coach Greg Knostman, Raven Mood, Dylan Knostman, Kayden Blair, Julien Savage, Manager Jessi Page. Not pictured is Connor Messenger.

Kevin Vandenack at bat.