Submitted photo – The RELL players and coaches celebrate their recent District championship.

The Redwood Empire 11-year-old All-Stars are showing a lot of fight this week.

After dropping their opening game at the Section tournament in Chico on Saturday, the young RELL players have battled back through the losers’ bracket to play for a championship and a place in this year’s NorCal state tournament.

On Sunday, they defeated Sutter Butte 13-7 and they followed that with a hard-fought 7-3 win over Cottonwood on Monday.

RELL will now get a Tuesday night rematch with Chico Central, the same team that beat them in their opening game.

They will need to win on Tuesday to set up a winner-takes-all game against the same team on Wednesday.

“All the kids are jazzed up,” manager Bob Manchin said. “They’re having a great time here, and they’ve been working hard for the last three weeks. As long as they keep their spirits up, there’s nothing that will stop them.”

The RELL All-Stars have been getting some big contributions from throughout their lineup, including a pivotal performance form pitcher Logan Mayberry in Sunday’s win.

Mayberry took the mound for the first time this summer and “did a great job,” according to Manchin.

He pitched four strong innings in the win, with Jamie Tyson and Jace Weigand pitching an inning each in relief.

“The pitching was great for us,” Manchin said. “They kept us in the game.”

Lavell Washington provided the offensive highlight of the game with a home run, while Oliver Yoder added a triple and Oliver Rivas a double.

But it was a complete team effort with 11 of the RELL players scoring at least one run each.

Matthew Plotz helped anchor the defense with several nice plays at shortstop.

“It was a total team win,” the manager added.

Monday’s game against Cottonwood was more evenly-matched, and once again the RELL pitching played a key role in the outcome.

Plotz got the start and struck out six in four strong innings, with Weigand pitching the final two innings to secure the win and striking out two.

Weigand also had two hits in that win, while Tyson hit a double and Carter Conrad also had a key hit.

“We didn’t have many big hits, we just made things happen,” Manchin said. “When we got on we scored.”

Tuesday night’s game is set for 6 p.m.