Submitted photo – The Redwood Empire 11s in Chico on Tuesday night.

The McKinleyville 12-year-old All-Stars avoided elimination for the third straight day and set up a winner-takes-all championship showdown on Wednesday night.

On Tuesday in Chico, McKinleyville won an exciting and back-and-forth matchup to keep their season going, edging West Redding 15-12 in eight innings.

The loss was West Redding’s first in tournament play and means the two teams will play again in Wednesday’s true championship.

The Redwood Empire 11-year-old All-Stars were also in action in their Section tournament in Chico on Tuesday night, but fell 17-7 to champion Chico Central.

The loss ended a memorable summer for the District 26 champs, who had battled their way back to the championship round after losing their tournament opener on Saturday.

The seven runs were the most any team has scored against this Chico team in the past two years.

McKinleyville, meanwhile, came out swinging the bats once again, scoring double digits in runs for the second time in three days.

The Mack players wasted no time getting on the board and opened up an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first.

But the Redding All-Stars would respond with three runs in the bottom half of the inning and led 4-1 after two.

Both teams, however, were just getting started and McKinleyville would tie things up with three runs in the top of the fourth, before Redding scored three in the bottom of the fifth.

The McKinleyville All-Stars then scored five runs in the top of the sixth to take their first lead since the opening inning, only for West Redding to respond with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to leave both teams deadlocked once again.

They would trade a run each in the first extra inning, but McKinleyville plated five runs in the top of the eighth to take control.

And that would prove to be enough to keep the season going, as West Redding managed just two runs in reply in their half of the inning.