Submitted photo – The RELL 12-year-old All-Stars celebrate their District championship.

By Ray Hamill — Summer baseball takes center stage in our weekly awards this week, as we honor a player who stepped up big time for his team this week and a local organization that enjoyed an outstanding month on the North Coast Little League fields.

Our team of the week honors go to Redwood Empire Little League.

After watching their rivals from McKinleyville dominate in District 26 play over the past several years, this summer belongs to the RELL players, coaches and volunteers.

On Tuesday night, the Redwood Empire 12-year-old All-Stars capped a few dominating days at the District tournament with a 10-0 win over Eel River in the championship game in Cutten.

The championship banner is the third for RELL this summer, having also claimed District titles at the Tournament of Champions and at the 11-year-old All-Stars tournament.

With the championships, the RELL 12s and 11s will now advance to this month’s Section tournaments.

While the players and coaches deserve credit for the success of this year’s teams, RELL president Tyson Fisher also has played a big role in putting the local organization front and center.

“He’s improved the league and made a bunch of changes to help Redwood Empire,” Padres manager Tyler Conley said of Fisher after his team won the TOC last month. “He’s done a lot of work behind the scenes and he did a lot for us throughout the season.”

This week’s Humboldt Sports Athlete of the Week, meanwhile, goes to a Humboldt Eagles player who enjoyed a clutch performance in Fairfield this week.

The Eagles 19Us traveled for the annual summer tournament and played their first game on Thursday, rallying late for a 4-3 over the Clovis Nighthawks.

The Eagles trailed by three heading into the top of the seventh, but secured an exciting win with four late runs.

And no one played a bigger role in the victory than McKinleyville’s Rhythm Green, who is our choice for athlete of the week.

Green had a big game both on the mound and at the plate, keeping his team in touch with a big pitching performance and then helping to key the late rally with what proved to be a game-winning bases-clearing double in the seventh.

“We hung around,” Eagles manager Scott St. John said. “We didn’t really hit the ball, but Rhythm kept us in the game and we hung in and got four runs when we needed them.”

Green pitched six innings for the win, giving up two earned runs on just two hits and three walks and striking out three.

With the win, the Eagles improved to 8-6 on the season.

Submitted photo – The RELL 11-year-old All-Stars celebrate their recent District championship.