Photo courtesy of McKinleyville Little League

The McKinleyville 12-year-old Little League All-Stars moved one game closer to a state championship with a 7-3 victory over Capitola-Soquel in the NorCal tournament in Stockton on Wednesday night.

Since dropping their opening game at the seven-team tournament on Saturday, the high-flying local all-stars have now won three straight elimination games and are one of just three teams remaining in contention.

McKinleyville is now 9-1 this summer and will try to keep the season going in another elimination game against Vacaville American on Thursday night at 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday’s victory came against the same team that had beaten McKinleyville in Saturday’s tourney opener.

This time around, however, the Mack bats quickly took control of the game with five early runs.

And despite giving up a late three-run home run, that would prove to be enough for pitchers Donny Chivrell and Teoh Arredondo and their defense, which turned in another strong performance.

It’s been a particularly impressive week for McKinleyville’s Hicks brothers.

Just one day after his younger sibling Crew hit a pair of big extra-base hits for the Mack 10-year-old All-Stars, older brother Carson provided the offensive highlight of the game for the 12s with a crucial two-RBI triple in the top of the second.

Mikey Shumard, Arredondo and Breyden Brock all hit singles to load the bases, before Jude Scher worked a walk to give his team a one-run lead.

Chivrell then made it 3-0 with a two-RBI base hit, before a well-executed sac bunt by Brylon Smith advanced both runners to scoring position.

Hicks’ decisive triple then stretched the advantage to five.

The Mack bats continued to threaten in the third.

With two outs, Shumard stayed hot and hit a double to the right center gap to score Everett Gruetzmacher, who had reached base on a fielder’s choice.

After their opponents had cut the deficit in half in the fourth, the young Mack all-stars would add an insurance run in the sixth.

Cabella Caper reached base on a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch, before scoring on a Blake Carper base hit.

Chivrell got the start on the mound and quickly set the tone with three quick outs in the first, the third coming on a running catch by outfielder Scher, one of four fly balls he was able to track down in the game.

Chivrell threw 1.2 innings and allowed just two walks and had one strikeout.

Arredondo closed out the game, pitching 4.1 innings and giving up just three hits and one walk and striking out six.

Cabella Carper and Shumard both led the way at the plate and finished with two hits apiece in the win in addition to Cabella’s walk.

Chivrell also had a base hit.

Smith also had a good day on defense with a spectacular backhanded catch at third base to end a scoring threat in the second inning.

A win for the Mack All-Stars on Thursday night would send them into the championship round, where they would face undefeated Bollinger Canyon.

Two wins over Bollinger Canyon would send McKinleyville to the West Region tournament.

Once again, a big shout out to Eric Eichin for providing all the game stats.