FORTUNA — The Fortuna Huskies scored four times in the bottom of the first inning, enough to beat the Clear Lake Cardinals 4-3 in the quarterfinal round of the North Coast Section Division IV baseball playoffs on Saturday afternoon in Fortuna.
Losing pitcher Matt Heller allowed two hits and walked two in one inning of work for the Cardinals (20-6), the North Central League I champions and No. 5 seeds in the Division IV field.
Dillon Williams and Jordan Chana finished up, Chana pitching 4 1/3 scoreless innings and allowing only two hits.
Clear Lake cut Fortuna”s lead to a single run with a three-run top of the third.
The Cardinals banged out eight hits to Fortuna”s four in the loss. Mitch Seely went 3-for-4 with a RBI while Cole Brodnansky went 2-for-4 with a double.
The fourth-seeded Huskies (18-8) advance to the semifinals today when they play No. 1 seed Justin-Siena in Napa at 4 p.m. No. 2 seed St. Mary”s (19-10) plays No. 6 Arcata (17-8) in the other semifinal on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in Berkeley. Semifinal winners meet in the championship game either Friday or Saturday.
