Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Hoopa’s Daisy Tracy and her teammates will host St. Bernard’s in a key doubleheader on Thursday.

The Hoopa Valley girls are getting hot at just the right time.

After struggling to get in games and quality practice time early in the year, the Warriors are now showing what they’re capable of and exactly why they are the defending Little 4 champions.

According to head coach Glenn Moore, the players are starting to believe in themselves, and it’s beginning to show.

Since dropping a pair of league games at St. Bernard’s in early April, they have won eight straight games, improving to 8-2 in the Little 4, and setting up a championship-deciding doubleheader at home to the Crusaders on Thursday.

And it’s not just the Little 4 opposition that the Warriors are beating.

On Friday, they knocked off two Big 5 teams, defeating Del Norte and Fortuna at the Coach Cheek Invitational, hosted by Arcata.

The Warriors beat Del Norte 7-6 and Fortuna 9-4 and are scheduled to close out tournament play with a doubleheader against the host team on Saturday night.

Hoopa’s Estelle Colegrove

Those two wins will give the Hoopa girls plenty of confidence heading into the pivotal showdown with St. Bernard’s.

The Crusaders have been the frontrunners in league play all spring, storming out to a 6-0 start before a surprise loss to Ferndale.

St. Bernard’s responded with a doubleheader sweep over South Fork and now sits at 8-1 in league play, half a game ahead of Hoopa with a game in hand.

And that should set the stage for an exciting finish to the Little 4, with both teams having everything to play for.

Thursday’s big showdown is set for 2 p.m.

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Ray Hamill writes at humboldtsports.com, where you can read lots more about sports in Humboldt County.