Submitted photo

A determined McKinleyville 10-year-old All-Stars team came to play on Monday night.

The young Mack Town all-stars hit three straight doubles to start an elimination game at the Section 2 tournament in Cottonwood on Monday night and cruised to an 11-1 win over East Redding to keep their championship hopes alive.

Casanova Marshall, Crew Hicks and Jacob Carper all hit doubles to lead off the game, before teammate Reece Combs followed that with a single, and all four batters would score in the opening inning.

And that would prove to be more than enough for McKinleyville, as three pitchers combined to hold the East Redding offense to just one run for the game.

The win was the second straight in an elimination game for the District 26 champs, who are now one of two remaining teams at the tournament and will play Chico on Tuesday night for a place in the NorCal state tournament.

McKinleyville needs to beat undefeated Chico twice to advance, but the local all-stars have almost a full complement of pitches to choose from after using multiple different pitchers on Monday in order to keep them eligible.

Carper got the start and threw 1.2 innings on 20 pitches, allowing two hits and striking out two.

Marshall threw one inning in relief and struck out three, before the impressive Grady McConnell came in to close out the game and pitched the final 2.1 innings.

“He stepped up in a big pitching role for us,” head coach Quintin Carper said of McConnell.

Hicks led the way at the plate and finished 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, while Jacob Carper was 2-for-2 with a hit-by-pitch and Marshall, Combs and McConnell all were 2-for-3.

Kai Osbourne-Wallace also made some noise at the plate and was 1-for-3 with two RBIs and Asher Kapko finished 1-for-3 with a double.

Kaydee Carper added a base hit and also impressed behind the plate.

“She is starting to block the balls in the dirt, which kept runners from advancing today,” Quintin Carper said. 

Osbourne-Wallace took over behind the plate late in the game and also has shown some promise there this summer, including throwing out a runner on a steal attempt at second base to end Monday’s game.

Maverick Utt also had a a base hit and was hit by a pitch, while Jackson Mixer added a hit and Blake Smith had a walk.

Colton Mixer was robbed of a base hit on a hard-hit blast with the bases loaded that the Redding right fielder made an outstanding play on.

“That was the hardest ball he’s hit all season,” Quintin Carper said of the impressive Colton Mixer.

Defensively for McKinleyville, Kapko made one of the defensive plays of the game in right field, when he scooped up the ball and threw hard to first base for an inning-ending out.

After carefully balancing their pitchers through the first four days of tournament action, McKinleyville now has several of them available for Tuesday’s potential doubleheader, including Jacob Carper, who will get the start again for game one, as well as Marshall, Combs and Kapko.

Tuesday’s first game gets under way at 5 p.m.