Submitted photo – The Del Norte Senior All-Stars opened the Regional tournament in Oakland on Wednesday morning.

The Del Norte Senior All-Stars took care of business in their Regional tournament opener in Oakland on Wednesday morning, defeating the Wyoming champs 11-1 in six innings.

The Oregon State champs looked a little sluggish early on, but grew into the game and began to pull away, before ending the game early on the 10-run rule.

The win sets up a showdown against the Nevada state champions on Thursday morning at 9 a.m.

“I think they started off a little bit slow,” Del Norte manager Bradley Sharp said of his players. “It was a high strike zone, so it was a bit of an adjustment for them, but they got the hits, base ran well and did what they needed to do.”

Several players stepped for Del Norte, including Lucas Lopez and Carver Overlin, who each finished the game with three hits.

Overlin, the No. 8 hitter in the lineup, also drove in a team-best three runs, while his teammate Michael Mavris displayed a keen eye at the plate and walked three times.

As a team, the Del Norte All-Stars took full advantage of their opportunities and walked eight times, with Overlin and Elijah Crespo also stealing multiple bases.

Defensively, Del Norte did not have any errors in a cleanly-played game.

Jaxon Sharp got the start on the mound and pitched well, giving up just one unearned run and striking out eight in 3.2 innings, before relief pitcher Alex Gonzalez took over and threw 2.1 shutout innings to close out the game and see his team over the finish line.

“I’m proud of them,” Bradley Sharp said. “They’re a unit and they’re a humble team. It’s beautiful to watch them play baseball.”

Getting these tournaments off to a winning start is important for any team that wants to go deep in tournament play, and if the Del Norte All-Stars can win again on Thursday they will have a day off before continuing tournament action on Saturday.

And their manager is confident they can keep it up.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do tomorrow,” he said. “I think they’re going to come out hard.”