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The McKinleyville Junior All-Stars faced a different challenge this week and passed with flying colors.

After rolling to three wins on the way to reaching Tuesday’s championship round at the Section tournament in Shasta Lake, the District 26 champs trailed in a game for the first time in a rematch with Palermo.

But in a back-and-forth showdown, the McKinleyville players used all of their experience to finish strong and pull out an 11-7 win.

The Section championship qualifies McKinleyville for the NorCal State Tournament which gets under way in Turlock on Saturday.

“We didn’t play our best game to be completely honest,” McKinleyville manager Jaime Arredondo said. “It was a different Palermo team than the first time we played them. 

“A different team showed up and they fought the whole way through.”

So too did the young McKinleyville players, who dug deep to take control of a 5-5 game in the seventh.

It was an entertaining showdown played in 100 degree weather.

“It was a good game to be a spectator,” Arredondo added with a chuckle. “To coach, not so much.”

Among the highlights for the local All-Stars was a two-run home run by Colton Hawkes, which gave his team their first lead of the evening.

However, Palermo would re-take the lead and force McKinleyvile to rally again.

The always reliable Breyden Brock got the start on the mound for McKinleyville and pitched well before reaching his 95 pitch limit.

Hawkes took over in relief and threw 65 pitches, before Teoh Arredondo came in to close out the game and got the final out to see his team over the finish line.

Those three standouts — Brock, Hawkes and Teoh Arredondo — all played key roles in the win, much as they have been doing for the past several years, along with catcher Ty Wade, who played the entire game behind the dish in hot conditions and did everything asked of him.

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“That was a game where we needed those four guys for sure,” Jaime Arredondo said. “We hung in there. The kids kept battling. The attitude was great. Everybody was encouraging each other.

“We were never down. We were losing but we were never down.”

Hawkes and Teoh Arredondo manned the middle infield positions when they weren’t pitching and both were as reliable as ever with their gloves.

The trip to the state tournament will be the sixth straight for some of the McKinleyville players, as they look to close out what has been a stellar Little League career.

“A big shout out to all of the families,” Jaime Arredondo said. “They make a difference and we definitely appreciate having the fan base. It definitely plays a role.”

After arriving back in town on Wednesday evening, the McKinleyville players will be back at practice on Thursday and Friday before traveling to Turlock on Friday evening.

And that’s not all.

The young players will be out and about fundraising for their big trip on Thursday morning, going to businesses in the area.

They will open the state tournament against defending NorCal champs Mark West out of Petaluma, a team McKinleyville beat at the state tournament last year.

And the Mack manager is confident his players will be ready to go this weekend.

“These boys are hungry,” he said. “They’re ready to go, they’re excited. They’re excited to go represent Humboldt County again.”