By Ray Hamill — The McKinleyville 8-10 All-Stars broke open a tight game with nine runs in the top of the eighth inning of Wednesday’s Section 2 championship game at Hiller Park.

And that was more than enough to secure a 16-8 win over Chico Central and see them advance to this weekend’s NorCal state tournament, which they will also host at Hiller Park.

California is one of only two states, along with Texas, to crown two state champs in Little League — one for the north and one for the south.

Wednesday’s game was a thriller and an exciting back-and-forth showdown, with both teams playing well.

After finding themselves trailing by two runs early in the game, the McKinleyville All-Stars rallied to score four runs in the top of the third to put them up by two.

Not to be out-done, the Chico players battled back with five runs to open up another two-run lead going into the sixth and final scheduled inning.

A Crew Hicks triple and a Cooper Jones single, however, both drove in runs to leave the teams all square again and force extra innings.

And that’s when the host team blew the game wide open, with multiple hits and hit batsmen and lots and lots of runs.

Check out all the offensive highlights above, starting with a game-changing Colton Hawkes bases-clearing triple in the third inning and finishing with the wild postgame celebrations.

For more on the game, see McKinleyville 10s win a thriller, get set to host state tournament …