Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from Tuesday evening’s game between Southern Humboldt and Redwood Empire.

By Ray Hamill — The first of the District 26 All-Star tournaments is down to the final three teams, as a busy month for local Little League begins to heat up.

Competing at the Arcata Little League fields, the Junior All-Star tournament got under way over the weekend with six teams in the bracket.

On Tuesday evening, the Redwood Empire played overcame an early deficit on the way to defeating Southern Humboldt in an elimination game to keep their tournament hopes alive.

Redwood Empire will now play Eel River in another elimination game on Wednesday evening at 5 p.m., with the winner advancing to play McKinleyville in the championship round.

Eel River suffered its first tournament loss on Wednesday night, falling to undefeated McKinleyville.

The winner of Wednesday’s game, which is set for 5:30 p.m., will play McKinleyville on Thursday at 5:30 p.m..

If the Mack all-stars win that game they will be crowned district champions, but if they lose it would set up a winner-takes-all showdown between the same two teams on Friday, also at 5:30 p.m.

The Junior All-Stars tournament is the first of five district tournaments this month.

On Saturday, the Majors Tournament of Champions will get under way at McKinleyville.

Later in the month, the district 10U and 11U tournaments will take place, with both tourneys beginning on June 22.

The 10U tournament will be hosted by Klamath Trinity, while the 11U tournament will be hosted by Eel River.

And rounding out a busy month, the 12U district all-star tournament will begin on June 29 and run through July 4.

That tournament will be hosted by Southern Humboldt.

Late last month, SoHum won the Juniors TOC and McKinleyville won the Seniors TOC.