Submitted photo

Here we go again.

On Wednesday night, the McKinleyville and West Redding 12-year-old All-Stars will face each other for the second straight night with a place in this year’s NorCal state tournament up for grabs.

After dropping their opening game of the Section tournament in Chico, the young McKinleyville players had to battle their way back through the losers’ bracket, winning three straight elimination games, including a 15-12 win in extra innings over a previously unbeaten West Redding team on Tuesday night.

The Mack bats finished the game strong as the local all-stars scored 11 of their runs over the three innings, including five in the top of the eighth.

It was a great win for the District 26 champs and a thrilling game that took eight innings to separate two quality teams.

With his team’s season on the line, Crew Hicks had a monster night and hit a pair of home runs to lead McKinleyville at the plate.

The young standout finished 2-for-4 and drove in four of his team’s runs.

But he wasn’t the only hero on a night when they were badly needed.

Colton Hawkes had a big night on the mound, allowing just four hits and five walks in 4.1 innings and striking out seven.

Bo Battilochi, Casanova Marshal and Cooper Jones all pithed in relief, with the latter throwing the final three innings and allowing just one hit and one walk to help carry Mack over the finish line.

Hawkes also had a good night at the plate and finished 2-for-3 with four runs, while Marshall also made some noise on offense and was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

Marshall also scored three runs.

The hard-hitting Reece Combs added a triple and scored twice, while Battilochi, Jones, Tatum Brock and Braden Tullis each also had a base hit.

Jones also walked twice

Tyus Scofield added three RBIs and Rowdy Furber had one, while Nathan Ryan and James Miner each scored a run to round out a big game for the entire roster.

Thank you to Eric Eichin for providing all of the statistics to Humboldt Sports.