baseball

Mack Junior All-Stars battle back to claim section championship

Submitted photo – The McKinleyville Junior All-Stars celebrate their section tournament win on Tuesday.

A remarkable summer for McKinleyville Little League is showing no signs of slowing down.

On Tuesday night, the Mack Junior All-Stars completed a remarkable comeback at their section tournament in Anderson with an 4-2 extra innings win over Durham in the championship game.

The Juniors will now play in this weekend’s state tournament in Millbrae, joining the Mack 12s and becoming the second McKinleyville all-star team to reach their state tournament.

Remarkably, McKinleyville will try to make it three teams in state tournaments when the 8-10s play in a true section championship on Wednesday night at 5 p.m. at Hiller Park.

The McKinleyville Juniors dropped their opening game at their section tournament on Thursday, but battled back in the extreme heat to win four straight elimination games, including Tuesday’s eight-inning showdown.

Pitcher Rhythm Green was outstanding on the mound in the championship, allowing just three hits and no walks in a complete game and striking out eight.

The win came against the same team that had defeated McKinleyville 17-4 in the tournament opener.

McKinleyville followed that with a pair of lopsided wins over the weekend, before edging East Redding 7-5 in a hard-fought battle on Monday to set up a rematch with Durham.

Tate Saso had a big night at the plate and on the mound in Monday’s win.

Saso threw 5.1 innings, allowing seven hits and striking out six.

He also led a five-hit team performance at the plate and was 2-for-3 with three RBIs.

Green, Bode Reininger and Lincoln Hungerford each also had a hit in the win.

Saso continued to make some noise at the plate in Tuesday’s win and had one of his team’s five hits while driving in a pair of runs.

Reininger, Green, Hungerford and Jake Brunner each also had a hit in that win.

The McKinleyville 12s also will play in their state tournament in Stockton this weekend.

1 reply »

  1. Regional excellence from McKinleyville baseballers, just wow, incredible…

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