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The McKinleyville girls kept their postseason hopes alive with an impressive bounce-back performance on Saturday night.

Facing elimination at the Section Little League softball tournament in Redding, the McKinleyville 12-year-old All-Stars rose to the challenge and turned in a gutsy performance to beat Lake Almanor 7-5.

The performance was a nice response from a team that had suffered a tough loss to a very good Chico squad in their tournament opener on Friday.

And just as impressive, all 12 girls on the team came ready to play and played a role in the win.

“I can honestly say every single girl batted and every girl on the roster contributed,” McKinleyville head coach Bob Pinard said. “Every girl had a part in winning this game.”

The McKinleyville girls also won with a young roster.

This is just the second year McKinleyville has fielded a softball All-Star team after bringing the program back in 2025.

Remarkably, only four of the 12 girls on this year’s team are actually 12-year-olds, with several 11-year-olds and 10-year-olds on hand.

But that didn’t slow them down on Saturday night, and with their season on the line the young players delivered in their biggest game of the year.

This is a tight group of players and it showed on Saturday night.

“They just have a lot of heart, they really do,” Pinard said. “They play together, they’re all friends and they all get along.

“There’s still room for improvement as a team, but they showed up tonight and every single one contributed.”

Charlie Howes helped set the tone for her teammates with a good outing in the pitcher’s circle and she pitched a complete game for the win.

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But she was far from the only standout on a night their team needed them.

The Mack girls opened their account in the bottom of the second inning, while taking advantage of an error by their opponents, but the Lake Almanor girls would respond in the top of the third, scoring twice to take the lead.

In a back-and-forth game, however, McKinleyville responded in the bottom half of the inning.

Gracelynn Gruetzmacher doubled and Abagail Boyer was walked and both base runners would score.

Once again, however, Lake Almanor would respond to tie the game in the fourth, before McKinleyville took the lead again in the bottom half of the inning, and this time they would make it stick, thanks to some solid pitching and clutch team defense.

Gruetzmacher, Tesa Lockhart, Howes and Rylee Pinard each had a base hit in the win.

Defensively, shortstop Ellie Parker had one of the highlight plays of the night with a double play late in the game, while teammate Kenzie Hawkes followed that with a clutch pop fly catch.

Lake Almanor loaded the bases in the sixth, but the McKinleyville players would get out of the jam on an attempted steal home to end the game and keep their season going.

The team also includes Grace Cox, Aubrey Turner, Izzy Cedeno, Aliyah Cedeno and Kamina Fargas.

For such a new program, the team has showed a tremendous amount of improvement from last year’s Section tournament in Yuba City.

“It’s awesome how far they’ve come in a year,” Bob Pinard said. “It says a lot about the program.”

The McKinleyville girls will be back in action on Sunday night, when they take on Red Bluff in another elimination game.

First pitch is set for 6 p.m.

Registration is already under way for the 2027 season. See below for details.