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By Ray Hamill — Several local Little League teams have done an excellent job representing Humboldt County in recent years, but few can match the achievements of a group of young McKinleyville All-Stars.

Beginning this weekend, the Mack Junior All-Stars will play for a state championship in Turlock and this is the sixth straight summer some of these players have made it this far in postseason play.

And that remarkable run, which included a sixth straight Section championship earlier this week, makes them our choice for the Humboldt Sports Team of the Week.

After a perfect run through the District 26 tournament last month, the young McKinleyville players traveled to Shasta Lake last weekend and continued to roll on their way to clinching the Section title.

The local All-Stars won all four of their games at the tournament, including a clutch 11-7 win over Palermo in Tuesday’s championship game.

It was the second tournament win over Palermo for the District 26 champs, but they had to battle for this one, overcoming multiple deficits on the way to the victory and closing the game out strong.

It was a clutch performance with team leaders Colton Hawkes, Breyden Brock, Teah Arredondo and Ty Wade all stepping up to lead the way.

The game was tied 5-5 going into the seventh, but the Mack players used all of their experience to find a way to win.

“That was a game where we needed those four guys for sure,” McKinleyville manager 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.”

Among the highlights in the win, Hawkes hit a two-run home run to help keep his team in contention early on.

He also was one of three pitchers the team used, along with Brock and Teoh Arredondo.

This year’s team also includes Nate Ryan, Cody Poff, Calen Ponte, Zayd Sandifer, Rowdy Furber, Cooper Jones, Tatum Brock and Aidan Irving, and, according to their manager, all 12 players have made big contributions on the path to success.

The young Mack All-Stars will continue their season at the NorCal State tournament, which gets under way in Turlock this weekend.

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